School Is A Battlefield
by Ailarii
Summary: Sophie has a lot on her plate this school year. New school and friends, some rumored to be more dangerous than others, and crazy people stopping at nothing to make sure you don't get the happy ending. School is a battlefield and Sophie is ready.
1. Moving

_If one person reviews saying how cliché this is, I will stab them with a spork and Alex shall with a paperclip. Since, duh, we aren't cliché in the least._

_Now, this idea randomly came to me, and if anyone is actually reading this, I probably wrote this months ago when I thought up the idea for this. Hopefully, this will make it to fanfiction and have a "complete" status eventually._

_I miss writing and I miss my readers..._

_Oh and sorry if the beginning sucks! I'm horrible at setting the mood and introducing everything. I hope I did well enough that it's not total shit and you hate it right away... Meh. Someone's gotta like it!_

_And. Do. Not. Ask. About. My. Other. Stories._

_Also, I have a few of these chapters written up. So hopefully you all will have that… But I doubt I'll update once a week. Maybe…once a month? I promise it will at least be once a year! Ha. Ok maybe three times a year. That work? Good!_

_Kthnxbai_

_Moving_

"Die! Die you evil dragon, die!" I shouted to my computer screen as my fingers flew over my keyboard an mouse. This stupid thing just wouldn't die and right as I about to start raging at it, I heard my mom's voice from downstairs.

"Sophie, can you come down here? We need to talk to you."

I groaned and paused my game. "Coming!" I stood up and walked down the hall and out into the living room. "What is it?" Mom and Dave, my step-dad, were sitting on the couch with serious expressions. I'd seen that look on my mom's face before. It was a mix of fear and anger, a lot of anger.

I went to sit on the couch and saw my brother Alex there as well. He gave me a look, obviously he was as clueless as me.

"Sophie, Alex, we have something we've been meaning to tell you for a few weeks now." My mom said quietly. Neither me or Alex said anything so she continued on. "Charlie has come around again." Oh yay, a visit from dear old daddy.

"Dammit!" Alex's hand slapped against the arm of the couch. "What is his problem? Why can't he just leave us alone?"

"What are you gonna do, mom?" I asked, ignoring Alex.

She looked at me with a now sad expression. "What else can we do? We'll have to move again."

Alex let out a groan of annoyance. "Why can't you just man up for once and tell him yourself to fuck off?"

"Alex!" Dave barked at him. "Watch it!"

Alex just rolled his eyes and stomped upstairs grumbling to himself.

The door upstairs slammed shut and the three of us were left in silence for a moment. I spoke up first.

"So, where are we going?"

Mom mustered up a smile for this one, obviously excited despite the circumstances. "We're going to be moving to Florida."

"When?"

"At the end of the summer, two months."

**~X~**

That was back in May. This always happens every few years. My mother kicked my father out when me and Alex were only little kids. According to mom, he would always be coming home drunk every night, and when he was drunk, he was mad. Of course once he got mad, he got violent. Mom had had enough of it once he started advancing on me and Alex and packed up house and left for an apartment of her own in a different state. Of course she never knew just how close he had gotten to us.

Eventually she got the restraining order, but dad never paid any mind to that. He went wherever he pleased and every five years or so, he'd feel like stopping by and saying hi to the family. We don't know for sure, but we believe he's a few crayons short of a 96 pack box. He's more of a 16 pack or so.

He always wanted to come by and try to apologize or something, but mom learned after the first two times that it was better to pack up and leave before he got too close again. That was back when I was about twelve. This will be the second time he's shown up since then. And once again, mom's running away again with her tail between her legs. This is, what, the fifth time we've had to run?

Believe me, I'd rather not stay there like a helpless puppy, but I'd also like to do something about it, rather than moving to a whole different state. I found some amazing friends this time, if I do say so myself. I had to break the news to them back at the beginning of summer and they were not happy in the least. My best friend, Max, suggested using one of her many guns to take him out, but I assured her that that would cause more trouble than it was worth. I'd rather have a crazy nut-job dad going after me than my best friend in jail.

I said all of my goodbyes to everyone yesterday and my mom even let me have this huge sleepover the night before last. That was for sure one of the funnest nights of my life. But now, here I am, lugging out boxes to the moving truck with Alex and the mover people.

"Geez Sophie, how much crap do you have?" Alex asked while carrying one of my suitcases to the truck/van/thing.

"What, you mean the great big brother can't carry a suitcase full of beanie babies?" I asked him.

"Not when you have a million of them all stuffed into one suitcase." He gave me a look.

I rolled my eyes and got into the backseat of Dave's car. Alex put the suitcase in the truck and went to his own car.

It's the end of summer and moving time. Of course mom couldn't stand the thought of flying, so we'll be driving all the way to Florida from South Carolina. Oh well, it could be worse. We could be going by train or something.

"Is that everything?" Dave asked as he got into the driver's seat. "We aren't leaving anything, right?"

"No, the house is empty." Mom replied as she got into the passenger seat.

"Alright, we're off then." Dave pulled out of the driveway and drove off, Alex following behind him. I stared out the window at yet another house we were driven out of and sighed. I pulled out my iPod and started playing some of the random games I had on there and listening to my music on shuffle. After a while I gave up on the games and just listened to everything. I had about two days worth of music on this thing (According to iTunes) so I figured I was pretty much set. I sat back and looked out the window and wondered what my new house and school would be like.

Would the new school be big? I hope it has some nice teachers. Some nice students would be good, too. I'd like to make at least one friend here and not be Forever Alone for my last two years of high school.

Sometime between me listening to LMFAO and Hollywood Undead I fell asleep. When I finally woke up, it was dark outside and we were still on the road. I sighed and grumbled as I noticed my iPod was almost dead and that my tummy was growling like a rabid animal.

I poked my head forward in between the driver and passenger seats. "Hey, where's the charger? Also, do we have any food?"

Mom handed me the charger and a bag of chips. "Here we got some at a rest stop a few miles back. Sorry we didn't wake you. We thought you needed your sleep."

"It's chill." I plugged the charger into the plug back here and connected my iPod as I tore open the bag of chips. Delicious. "How long have we been driving, exactly?"

"About twelve hours." Dave said. "We had to give Alex a two hour break, though."

Of course going to a hotel was ludicrous. We had to drive constantly until we got there, which I'm guessing won't be for another five hours or so. I didn't feel like listening to much music right now, so I opened up my backpack and looked through it for something to do. I found two of my mini pillow pets, a dinosaur and a unicorn, and got an idea.

For the next five hours I had my unicorn and dinosaur have a fight to the death. In the end, the dinosaur won 64 – 53. The unicorn was just no match for the dinosaur's razor sharp teeth. The poor thing.

"How much longer now?" I asked when I saw a sign that said our exit was next.

"Half an hour at most." Mom said, and she was right, in about twenty minutes we were pulling into the driveway of our brand new home.

We all got out and stood around doing nothing while the movers brought in all the furniture and boxes. I do not envy the long drive back home they have. But that's what you get when you advertise for long distance shipping. Once everything was brought in Dave and Alex went to bed for the rest of the day. They'd been driving all day and deserved a nice rest.

While they slept, me and mom unpacked a bunch of the boxes for things like the living room, kitchen, my room, and some of her stuff for her room. It was different, but I liked this house. It was nice and spacious and had this really nice fireplace in the living room area. Not to mention this house had a second floor! I'd always wanted to live in a two story house, but mom always thought it was too large of a place.

I had asked her why she decided to get one this time, but she didn't say much. I'm guessing it's because she feels bad for moving us again. Well, it works for me!

After Dave and Alex finally woke up, we unpacked the rest of the stuff and moved some furniture around. Well, Dave and mom moved furniture, me and Dave were stuck with hooking up all the electronic devices such as TVs, music players, computers, and stuff like that. Eventually we got everything looking the way we liked it and all the appliances were functioning. Even if we had to wait a day before we could get TV or internet.

Thankfully I didn't have to wait too long. Once we were done with everything, I was pretty tired, and since it was around 8 I figured I could sleep. And I did, until 9 AM. The only thing that could have woken me up was the most amazing smell in the world.

Bacon.

The moment it registered in my mind, I threw off my sheets and ran downstairs in all my pantsless glory. I sat down and grabbed a handful of bacon from the table and shoved it into my face. Delicious.

I was soon followed by Alex, who all but sprinted out into the kitchen from upstairs. I almost choked on my bacon in laughter when he almost fell down the stairs.

"Careful there," Dave looked over his magazine at Alex, smiling. "We don't need the new house to kill you right off the bat."

"That would mean this place is haunted and we'd all be doomed to die in painful ways." I said through my bacon.

Alex nodded as he sat down. "I really don't want the house to kill me."

It got quiet after that while we all dug into our breakfast.

"Are we gonna go school shopping today?" I asked, uncomfortable with the silence.

Mom nodded. "Yes, we need to get you two your stuff."

"Ok sweet." I finished my bacon and pancakes that I had grabbed and got up. As I walked off to my room to get ready, I heard mom asking Dave if he knew where the nearest Walmart was. Seriously? Walmart? Come on mom, be classy. Take me to Target!

When I came back, mom was having Alex look up directions on his iPhone. She wrote them down onto a sticky note and told him to go get ready. Once he was done, the three of us were off to get school stuff. We still had a few days before school started, so at least I could get used to the house before I had to get used to the school.

"It's so different here." I mused looking out the window of the car on our way to Walmart.

"You'll get used to it, eventually." Mom sighed from the front seat. "We all will."

Soon we arrived at the store. It was pretty much the same as ours. Tons of odd people, screaming children, low prices, and someone who you can decide is a hobo or a hipster.

Anyways, we made our way over to their special sale on school supplies. They even had a stand that had school supply lists on them. How convenient.

I grabbed mine for 11th grade and Alex got his 12th grade one. The two of us went off into the maze of school supplies while mom went off to look at house decor and other such things.

"Meet back here in twenty minutes!" She called, almost running off with a cart.

"Will it really take us that long to find all this stuff?" Alex asked, sighing with our own cart.

I glanced down at our lists. "Well, it might not take me that long, but you, my friend, might need all day." I giggled, running off while Alex groaned and went the other way.

I looked around at the isle I was in. Notebooks, pencils, sharpies, normal school/office supplies. Then, my eyes landed on it.

"Dear Lord." I stared at it in awe, slowly approaching it and reaching a hand out to touch it. "I can't believe this. I heard it existed, but I never thought... The 150 Count Telescoping Crayola Tower!" I almost squeed in excitement as I held it close. One hundred and fifty crayons. Pretty much every Crayola color! My day is made.

After a few more minutes of excitement and a few more odd stares from people, I continued along my search for everything on my list. I had most of the things on there like pencils and calculators, so in the end all I could really get were the binders, folders, and notebooks.

It was quite the easy pick. Dinosaur notebooks and My Little Pony folders and binders. I had a pony for each subject. Twilight for English, Fluttershy for science, Applejack for math, Rainbow Dash for P.E – since apparently we need a binder for that – Pinkie Pie for my art class, and Rarity for history. I figure she's obsessed with fashion, she'd be obsessed with its history.

I happily hugged all of my supplies and continued through the aisles. I got to the backpack isle and nearly pissed myself, dropping all of my stuff. They had an Adventure Time backpack that came with the hat that Finn wore. I snatched it off the rack, stuffed all my stuff in it, put on the hat, and put the backpack on.

I then proceeded to run around the store shouting "ADVENTURE TIME! COME CAKE! WE MUST RESCUE PRINCE GUMBALL FROM THE ICE QUEEN!" Since obviously I was a Fionna and not a Finn.

As I ran around, I got a little army of children to follow me. I got a Marshall Lee, a Lumpy Space Prince, a Cake, a Prince Gumball, and an Ice Queen. We all played out an adventure throughout Walmart where the Ice Queen kidnapped Prince Gumball and I had to band together with LSP, Marshall Lee, and Cake to get him back. In the end, we totally won, and I bought the Ice Queen a lolipop so she wouldn't feel so bad.

We got a lot of weird looks though, and when we passed by this one group of guys, they started hollering with laughter. This one girl also made a quick remark, but I easily had a comeback about the rat's nest she called hair. I mean come on, that was the worst shade of red I've ever seen, and it looked like she only brushed one half! I won't say that they were jealous, but come on. This is the most fun I think I've ever had.

I think I'll like it here.

Though of course with all of my adventuring, I lost track of time and realized I had to meet up with mom and Alex twenty minutes ago. Oops...

I booked it to our meeting spot and found them there, waiting impatiently. Mom didn't look too happy.

"Where the hell have you been?" She silently yelled at me. "We've been waiting here for almost half an hour for you! We thought someone took you! Weren't you watching the time?"

"Sorry! You see I found this Adventure Time gear and started running around and soon got my own team of Adventurers together and we did this whole fun Adventure thing! I lost track of time and I would have been here sooner but I had to buy the Ice Queen a lollipop because she lost!" I panted out, knowing full well that was the most lame-ass excuse ever.

"You bought her a lollipop?" Mom started to look less mad, and more confused.

I nodded slowly. "Uh, yeah, cause she was all sad about losing."

"Oh... Ok then." With that, she walked off to the check-out and called for us to hurry up. "We need to get home and finish setting everything up!"

Alex and I looked at each other, just as confused as the other, and followed behind mom. What the fuck? This place must have had some kind of drug effect on her. She never would have accepted that!

Not that I'll be complaining anytime soon...

We bought all of our stuff and headed home. The rest of the day was spent doing almost nothing. Mom and Dave watched some T.V, Alex explored the internet in his room, while I went outside in my Adventurer gear and battled the Ice Queen, winning a date with Prince Gumball.

I'd never really had a boyfriend before. Sure I'd liked a few guys, but was always way too shy to ever say anything. I sighed as I got up and went back into the house, slapping myself in the face for pretending like this. Not that I'd stop... It was too much damn fun.

I went up to my room and sat down in my computer chair, staring at the screen. Well, school did start tomorrow – mom didn't want us to be doing nothing in this house too long, so she made sure to move us as close to the start of school as possible. Maybe this year will be different. Maybe this year I can find a real Prince Gumball for myself. Pink hair and all!

**~X~**

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock blaring at me. The time between turning it off and getting into the car for school was a sleepy blur. About all I can recall is waffles and making sure to have all of my stuff, including my amazing backpack and new hat. If I was going to make an impression, I'd want to make a good one. I don't want to make friends with people that think this is silly.

It was a quick ten minute drive to the school and a good twenty minute effort to get into the damn parking spot Alex had been assigned to. Eventually we made it, after much yelling and close calls.

Alex sighed as he pulled the keys out of the ignition. "Don't any of these kids know how to dodge a car?" He asked no one in particular as he walked out of the car. He'd almost hit almost five of them. One had this really odd silver hair and started yelling profanities at us, but some other kid with wicked piercings kept him walking on. I have a feeling the car, and Alex's face, would need much repair if that carrot top hadn't intervened.

Alex and I followed the students into the school and to a large courtyard where it seemed everyone was waiting to enter the school. I stuck by Alex the whole time. Seeing as I didn't know anyone else, I didn't want to be walking around by myself awkwardly. At least with him I wouldn't feel awkward or have to talk anyone that thought it was a good idea to pick on the new kid.

Thankfully the bell soon rang. I almost ran past everyone else to get into some building first. It was going to be hard enough to learn this school; I don't need to start it out by running into everyone. That didn't last long as I started to slow down to take in each room number and make sure it wasn't on my schedule. If I could try to remember where a room was now, maybe I could remember was it was later.

Although, I was still having a time of it finding my first period class. It's like this school was designed by some demented man, hell bent on watching the students wander aimlessly and go completely bonkers because they were going to be late. I bet sometime this year all the doors are going to mysteriously lock and everyone will end up killing everyone else while I hide in the bathroom screaming "I TOLD YOU SO!"

But for now I glared down at my schedule. "Ugh, fuck me. Where is this stupid room?" While my eyes were down at my schedule I didn't see the body walking out in front of me and effectively crashed into it. I backed up quickly and looked up at the person. "Sorry!"

The guy turned around and looked at me. He had this insane silver gravity-defying hair and a mask over his face along with his normal khaki pants and button down shirt. Wait...what? Is there some kind of radiation? That's it! We're all gonna be locked here and tested on!

"It's alright. In a hurry are we?" He asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

I shook my head to clear it and then let his words process in my brain. I nodded. "Yeah, I'm kinda lost."

He put out his hand for my schedule. "Are you new here?"

I handed it to him. He seemed like a teacher so I didn't see the harm in it. "Yeah, and I have no idea where I'm going."

Mr. Teacher perused my schedule for a moment. "Here, I'll show you the way to your first class." He began to walk off and I quickly followed behind him. "I'm Kakashi by the way."

"Mr. Kakashi?" He did seem like a teacher after all...

"No, just Kakashi. I hate when people call me mister." Kakashi never looked back and kept leading me through hallways to my first class, English. "Here you are." He handed me back my schedule and pointed to the door. "Just ask Asuma for directions to your next class. He won't mind."

I smiled and nodded. For a teacher, he seemed pretty awesome. I wonder if I have him anytime. "Thanks Kakashi." He gave me what seemed like a smile and walked in the other direction. I entered the classroom right as the bell rang and hurried over to a desk in the back, setting my backpack next to me on the ground.

"That has to be the most amazing backpack I've ever seen." A voice next to me said.

I looked up to see a blond kid staring at it and my hat with awe. "Thanks, you'd be surprised what Walmart carries."

"I _need_ to go there later. Adventure Time all the way!" He smiled and put his hand up for a high-five.

"Hell yeah!" I high-fived him and smiled back. This kid seems pretty nice.

"I haven't seen you around before. Who are you?" He asked quietly since the teacher had started talking. It was mostly about how he welcomed us to the class and stuff.

"I'd hope you never saw me before. I just moved here a few days ago. My name's Sophie." I whispered back.

"I'm Naruto, nice to meet you, Sophie!" The kid just couldn't stop smiling. It was infectious. "Welcome to our school." Asuma started handing back handbooks for the school

"Thanks, you're the first person I've talked to. Well besides the kids that went Adventuring with me." I just couldn't get over that awesomeness!

"Then you're in luck, I can introduce you to some of the people around here. It might seem like shit around here, but good friends always make it better." Naruto grabbed the handbook that finally reached the back of his row.

I nodded and grabbed mine. "Thanks, that'd be nice."

"Awesome!" Naruto almost yelled.

"Naruto! Quiet down back there! We don't need any of your antics on the very first day back." The teacher, Asuma, called back to him.

"Haha, sorry!" Naruto opened up his book and gave the teacher and innocent smile.

Asuma only rolled his eyes. "Everyone turn to the first page, we need to go over this section by the end of the period." And that's how the rest of the period went. He discussed his section of the book and then let us all have some free time before the bell rang.

Naruto was kind enough to include me in the conversation he and his friend were having – Shikamaru I think. Shikamaru seemed like one big lazy ass. I liked him.

The bell rang in the middle of me and Naruto trying to make an oragami bird of some sort. Not sure how we got onto the topic of that, but we failed so hard trying to make one. It looked so sad that we decided to put it to sleep after school by folding a rock inside of it and chucking it into the parking lot. His name was Larry.

Up until lunch time all that happened was Naruto trying to walk me to and from every single class I had and introducing me to anyone that he thought I could talk to during said class. I have to say, he is one social bug. I now have a friend in every single one of those classes. I will never be bored.

Of course Naruto pulled me over to his table for lunch. Not that I minded. If he hadn't, then I probably would have sat with a bunch of other outcasts that had no interest in ponies or Adventuring.

As I looked over the table and saw that I knew about half of the people there. Though I didn't know the boy that Naruto shoved off the table to make room for me.

"What the hell, Naruto?" The boy now on the floor yelled up at him.

"Sophie needed a seat." Naruto said nonchalantly as he sat me down and sat in the empty seat next to me. The girl on my other side bent down to see if the boy on the floor was ok.

"Who?" The boy asked.

Naruto pointed to me. "Who do you think? It totally can't the girl you've never seen before."

"Uh, I can sit at another seat if this is a problem you know." I looked from Naruto to the boy on the floor.

"No need, Shikamaru should be leaving to the library soon. Sasuke can sit over there when he's done." Naruto said.

Almost on cue, Shikamaru got up and left, rolling his eyes. The guy called Sasuke scoffed but took the seat anyways.

"Everyone this is Sophie!" Naruto shouted to the table, well, mostly to the people who I haven't met yet. "Sophie this is Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, and Ino. You already know Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Choji, and Shikmaru."

They all gave a wave and a hi and then went back to their little conversations. Sakura and Naruto decided to talk to me, though.

"Naruto tells me that you're new." Sakura said. This girl was already cool in my book. She has fucking PINK hair!

"Yup. Just moved two days ago." I opened my lunch box and brought out some pudding.

"Where did you move from?" She took out her own sandwich.

"North Carolina. My mom dropped the bomb on me at the beginning of summer." I opened my pudding and licked the lid.

"Why did she want to move?" Naruto asked while he pulled a bowl of ramen out of his lunch bag.

I stared at the bowl for a moment before his question registered in my brain. "Uh...she just got tired of North Carolina. She wanted to move to sunny Florida and my step dad agreed. Now why do you have a random bowl of ramen?"

"Because my dad wouldn't let me bring two." He said with a mouth stuffed with ramen.

"I like that logic." I said, starting to eat my pudding.

We talked about nonsense for the rest of lunch, and the rest of my classes flew by as Naruto introduced me to more people. There was this one boy, Gaara, that he introduced me to in my 4th period... He looks like one of those guys that you come across on the sidewalk, and go to the other side of the street to avoid.

We didn't talk too much... That is until I brought out my Pinkie Pie binder.

He looked over at my binder and oh so quietly said, "Twilight Sparkle is better."

My mouth dropped as I stared at him. I couldn't believe this! Not only did this big scary guy like Ponies, but was also so wrong it hurt! "Oh, buck no! Fluttershy all the way, man!"

"If you like Fluttershy, why do you have a Pinkie Pie binder?" He asked in a monotonous tone.

"Because Fluttershy is for science class, duh." I pulled out my Fluttershy binder.

He examined it for a moment before nodding. "Twilight is still the best."

So, for the rest of that period, I had a fight with a stranger about what ponies were the best. The bell rang before we could come to an agreement, so we decided to continue this tomorrow.

The last class of the day, science, was one of the worst things ever. I had Naruto in it, but that didn't matter much. The teacher was the creepiest things ever. Naruto said his name was Orochimaru or something.

The only way I could describe him is what happens when you mold together Michael Jackson and Voldemort. Only with way more creepy and the feel that I was going to be raped. Seriously, I thought he was going to come right over to my desk and start ripping off my clothes. I didn't even have Naruto near me to protect me! I mean, the room was even darker than the rest, with a bunch of creepy things everywhere.

This. This is the man that made the school a maze to torture us. He's going to experiment on us, I just know it...

The whole class was just him slowly reading the handbook and yelling at anyone who so much as put their elbow on the desk or hand on their head to keep it up.

I was so glad to be out of there once the bell rang. I ran as fast as I could out of there with Naruto in tow. "Ok, that was horrible."

"Yeah, no one likes Orochimaru. He's the worst teacher here." Naruto shuddered. "But we have more important matters to attend to." He reached into his backpack and pulled out Larry. He looked even sadder now. "It is time."

"Poor Larry. I wish we could have done more for him." I poked Larry carefully. "Let's get going."

"We gotta get there before too many people do. Don't wanna hit anyone." With that, Naruto ran off. I tried to keep up with him, but he was so damn fast! I knew the way he was going, so I just kept running in that direction. However I came to quite the road block once I reached one hallway. A bunch of guys were in the middle of the hall.

Ugh. I slowed down and calmly walked over, trying to find a place where I could squeeze through. Sadly, it didn't seem like I'd be able to go by, the closer I got. These guys were fucking huge. "Uh, excuse me? I need to get out." I said as I close enough to speak to them.

Some of them glanced in my direction but didn't pay me much heed. Well, that's just not nice. "Excuse me! I'm missing a funeral right now!"

They gave me some weird glances and I realized that I recognized one of them. It was that silver haired guy from this morning. The one that Alex almost flattened.

"Hey, you're that bitch that was in that car that almost ran me over this morning!" He walked over towards me, apparently recognizing me, too. Shit. "You really need to tell that asshole how to drive."

Oh hell nah! "You were the one that wasn't looking where he was going. You walked right out in front of us! Perhaps you should learn how to look both ways before crossing the street."

"I wouldn't have to do that if your dumbass driver would learn how to operate his own fucking car." The silver-haired teen growled at me. Behind him, his friends were watching in amusement, but seemed to be ready in case he did anything regretful. Wait...does that mean I might get my face punched in? Oh shit.

"Look, just let me get by so I can get to my funeral! Larry will not be happy if I miss it." I kept looking for an opening.

"Who the fuck is Larry?" The silver head asked.

"A bird that me and my friend accidentally killed. So we figure it would only be honorable to give it a nice funeral." I said seriously.

"You have to be on something." One of the guys behind him said. At least I think he was a guy... He was fucking huge and _blue_.

"It's called having some fun. Can I just get going?" I sighed in annoyance. This was just getting silly. All they had to do was move a few inches aside.

"Nah, I think you're good here." The silver head said again, giving me a kinda creepy smirk.

I slowly backed up from them, getting a bad feeling. "Look I don't want any trouble or anything..."

"Sophie!" Naruto's voice came from behind the wall of teen boys.

The boys all turned around to see Naruto standing there, almost glaring at them.

"Is there a problem here?" Naruto asked calmly.

A black haired boy stepped forward. "No there isn't. Hidan was just getting a bit too riled up. Right, Hidan?" The boy looked over at the silver haired guy, apparently called Hidan.

"Right." Hidan said, an edge in his voice.

"Good." Naruto looked from them to me, and smiled again. "Well come on, we're running out of time!"

I looked from the boys to Naruto, confused, and squeezed through the little hole they gave me to move through, running over to Naruto. We headed outside and found a rock for Larry.

"You ok?" Naruto asked as he wrapped the paper around the rock. "The Akatsuki can be a rough bunch. They didn't do anything to you, right?"

I shook my head. "No, just talked."

"I hope so. You don't want to get mixed up with them." Naruto handed me the paper and rock. "Go on, toss him!"

I smiled and chucked the rock clear into the parking lot.

Sure, the "Akatsuki" didn't do anything do me before Naruto came, but I could swear one of them touched my butt when I was passing through them.

**~X~**

_Awh yeah. This was re-done and I think it is now fucking AMAZING. Review and stuff. Being the review whore that I am, I'm not gonna update this until I know there's a significant amount of people that enjoy this. _

_3 Hearts and stuff  
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	2. Sleepovers and Creeps

_Here's a lovely chapter two! Whoo! Thanks to anyone who's reading this! And sorry for the late update. I was moving and shit. I still have a few chapters typed up and the way I see it, I'm going to be putting all of those up before I continue typing, against my better judgement. Sigh. Oh well!_

_Please enjoy and review~ The more reviews this whore gets, the quicker I'll update!  
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_Sleepovers and Creeps_

For the next few days, all I really did was go to school, come home, do homework, and then chill on my computer while petting my pet turtle Martin. It's not fun when he pisses on me though. Seriously, that is pretty icky... But it doesn't stop me from loving him!

Come Friday, I knew almost everyone in that school thanks to Naruto. I didn't really befriend much of them, but I could at least say hi. More times than not, people would say hi to me first, and I'd have to quickly try to remember a name.

I kept quite most of the time though, talking mostly with Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata. They were pretty cool people. Even though Sakura can be a little bit of a bitch to Naruto, and he can be a bit obnoxious and oblivious, and Hinata is pretty quiet.

But they all really cared for each other, and I thought that was really nice. They said that they've all known each other for about five years now. No wonder.

The teachers here are also kick ass. They all teach in such a way that makes learning _fun._ It's still learning, but they make it so simple and so much more enjoyable than my old school. Well, everyone but that Orochimaru... He's just freaky and quite boring. He teaches with this monotonous tone that makes you want to fall right asleep. Of course if you so much as close your eyes you get a ruler slapped on your desk. Not fun.

Other than him, this place is pretty awesome. Sakura even invited me to a sleepover this weekend with Ino, Hinata, a girl named TenTen, and Gaara's sister Temari. I actually asked if I could bring Martin cause he loves parties, and Sakura said sure. Looks like me and Martin are gonna have a life this weekend!

I'll have to tell Max and Andrew not to have a heart attack cause I can't join them in game this weekend... They'll live, I'm sure.

Before I knew it, it was Friday and near the end of the day. Unlucky for me, I drank far too much apple juice. I looked at the clock, only ten minutes until the bell rang. Screw it, Orochimaru wasn't gonna let me go. I raised my hand.

Kurenai saw it and came over. "Yes, what is it?"

"I really really have to pee." I said bluntly.

"I'm sorry but you'll have to wait, the bell is going to ring soon." She said.

"But I have Orochimaru next period and he's on the other side of the school." I tried to beg. It was worth a shot.

She gave me a look for a few moments and pointed me towards the pass. "Be quick."

"THANK YOU!" I jumped up and all but ran to the bathroom.

When I was done, I walked out of the girl's room and right into a person. "Sorry!" I said as I quickly backed up, rubbing my nose. Whoever this was, they must have had rocks for a body. That really hurt!

"It's fine." The guy said looking down at me. "Hey, you're that girl that almost ran over Hidan on Monday." Well, I don't think he was made of rocks, but I recognize him as one of the Akatsuki.

"My brother was driving, thank you very much." I crossed my arms and looked up at him. I didn't realize how tall he was last time I saw him. Fuck his head could probably touch the ceiling!

"Whoever was driving, don't mind Hidan. He's a hothead who can't seem to keep his mouth shut and picks fights with anyone he can." His face turned thoughtful. "We were amazed when he didn't pound little you into a pulp before Naruto came along."

"He would actually beat up a helpless girl?" I raised an eyebrow. The guy nodded. "Is he too stupid to realize I could have sued him for assault?"

The guy in front of me let out a short, humored laugh. "Yeah, he is. Hey, I never did get your name."

"Sophie." I said. "What about yours?"

"Kisame." He grinned before turning and walking away. "See you around, Sophie. Nice talking to you."

I stared after him for a moment before shrugging and walking back to class. I had to be back soon. I could feel the bell about to ring. For the first time in a while, I was almost sad to see the week end. I was having a lot of fun here, but at least now I can look forward to the sleepover tomorrow night.

Orochimaru's class slid by so slowly I thought I was going to kill myself. I don't even remember what we learned. All I remember his him staring at each of us one at a time. Like he was reading our minds. I swear I think he can. Anytime he looks at me I try to think about nothing but ponies. It's only when you know someone is seeing your mind that you start thinking about everything bad... Any and every bad internet image I've seen kept trying to seep into my mind.

Ponies! Ponies! Ponies! Must think ponies! I stared at my Fluttershy binder trying to think up some pathetic story for her.

By the end of the period I had a full story for Fluttershy that explained why she was so shy and how she gets over it later in her life. I must say it was amazing.

"That was really rough." Naruto said, cracking his neck as we walked towards the parking lot.

"I'll say. After that, I'm actually ready for the weekend." I sighed.

"Aren't you having that sleepover with Sakura?" He asked almost cautiously.

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. "Yeah, tomorrow night. Why?"

"No reason!" He said quickly and ran off ahead of me.

"Naruto get back here and tell me!" I ran after him to the parking lot. Sadly, that boy was much more fit than I was. Not to mention his legs were far longer than mine. By the time I got to the parking lot, I could see his orange truck pulling out and driving off. He stuck his tongue out at me and I shook my fist angrily at him. "I'm going to find out, Naruto!"

"Doubt it!" He sped off, leaving me there to wait for Alex.

I couldn't help but giggle and shake my head. Naruto was pretty fucking awesome. I have to admit that.

"You alright there?" Alex's voice broke through my giggle-fit.

"Yeah, come on let's go." I skipped off to his car as he followed behind me.

For the rest of the day, I played a bunch of different games with Max and Andrew until about 3 AM. I finally went to bed and woke up at about noon. Groaning, I lugged my lazy ass out of bed and went downstairs for breakfast/lunch.

"It rises!" Alex said as I walked through the living room to the kitchen.

"Oh hush you." I said as I got out a bowl for my Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It wasn't bacon, but it was still delicious.

Finished with my cereal, I went upstairs and did homework until I had to leave. I figured I wouldn't want to do any tomorrow once I got home, and if I didn't do some of this, my teachers would not be very happy. I saw what happened when Naruto didn't turn his in. Especially with Orochimaru... I shuddered visibly and continued with my work.

Thankfully I finished soon and started to pack up my stuff. That included my penguin Pjs, my iPod, clothes for tomorrow, a charger for my phone and iPod, and Martin tucked neatly in there along with some food for him and some paper towels to clean up after his messes. As long as he didn't shit or piss on my stuff, I'm good.

"Alex you need to drive me to Sakura's now!" I yelled as I ran down the stairs.

"Gimme a minute!" He called back.

"Hurry!" I sat down on the couch and sighed.

Dave looked over at me from the recliner. "There won't be any boys, right?"

"Not that I know of!" I smiled at him. "And if there are, I'll just sit in the corner and try to play Minecraft or Skyrim on Sakura's computer. Chances are, the boys will all flock to me then and try to steal the computer, thus keeping them all away from us and engaged in game."

"I have taught you well." Dave smiled and turned back to the T.V.

Alex came down the stairs and grabbed his keys. "Come on, I'm in the middle of fighting Nick right now and he's gotta help me get an achieve later."

"Right." I got up and hopped to the car. "Thanks for driving me again. It's nice to have some kind of life."

"I wouldn't know." Alex said as he pulled out of the driveway.

"Maybe you would if you got off that computer."

"Says the girl who was on it for almost twelve hours last night."

"Oh shut it and watch the road!" I stuck my tongue out at him.

He stuck his out at me, but for only a moment, seeing as a squirrel ran out in front of us and made me scream and Alex slam on the brakes. I swear that squirrel gave us a taunting stare.

"Stupid squirrels." I grumbled the rest of the way to Sakura's. "I'll text you when to get me tomorrow, ok?"

Alex nodded. "Yup sure. And if this isn't her house, you're stuck here. Bye." With that he peeled out and was probably half way home by the time I reached the door.

I hesitantly knocked on the door. For all I knew, Alex could have dropped me off at some killers house. I backed up a bit as the door opened.

Sakura came jumping out and hugged me. "You're finally here! Come on!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me in. All the girls seemed to be in the living room, eating various foods and talking about various things.

I set my backpack down and walked in, smiling at everyone and sitting next to Hinata.

"Sophie, this is TenTen and Tamaki." Sakura pointed to a brunette and then a blond. "They're both in the senior class, so you probably don't know them yet."

"Her brother might." Ino said.

"Who's her brother?" Temari asked.

"Uh, I dunno. Hey, Sophie, what's your brother's name?" Ino looked over to me.

"It's Alex. He's the new kid." I said as I reached for some peanut butter. "Yum!"

"Oh yeah I saw him! He's cool." TenTen said.

"Yeah not half bad. Funny guy." Temari said, getting some Skittles.

"Let's get off the topic of my brother now. I had enough of him in the car over here. I swear he would drop me off at a serial killers house if he knew the address." I got a spoonful of peanut butter and shoved it into my mouth. "I think he tried to do that today, but he was too focused on kicking his friend's ass on a game... OH!" I stood up and ran to my backpack. "Sakura are we allowed to have boys over?"

Sakura shook her head and stared at me. "No, why?"

"Because I'm probably disobeying your parents..." I pulled Martin out of my backpack and sat down with the girls again.

Almost on cue all of them started to squeal and scream – except Hinata – and move over to get a better look at Martin. For about an hour all anyone wanted to do was hold and play with him. I just know this was probably the best night of his life. Girls in their Pjs/underwear were all pining for him. Every turtle's dream.

Once everyone calmed down and we all changed into Pjs we broke off into some little groups to chat and eat till we exploded. I started to talk with Temari who seemed pretty cool. That is, until...

"So, your brother drove you over?" She asked me as she played with Martin.

I scooped up another spoonful of Nutella and nodded. "Yup! Mom was busy and Dave just didn't want to."

"Oh, cool. Say, what's your brother like?" She kept petting Martin slowly.

"Annoying but fun to battle against in TF2." I licked some Nutella. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason." She said quickly and started to make Martin fly around like a battleship.

"Temari likes Alex, Temari likes Alex..." TenTen whispered from her spot a few feet away.

"Don't make me shoot the turtle lazers at you!" Temari pointed Martin at TenTen.

TenTen smiled back at her innocently. "You know it's true."

"PEW PEW PEW!" Temari pretended to fire turtle lazers at her.

I stared open-mouthed at Temari as she used Martin as a weapon. Someone liked Alex? How is this possible? Ok to be honest it's not that bizarre. He had a fair few amount of girls liking him back at our old school, but it's weird to imagine anyone that I even kinda sorta know liking him.

"Just don't get pregnant with his child and I'm chill with it." I said as I reached the bottom of the Nutella. "Crap." I got up and went to the kitchen hearing the protests of Temari and the laughs of everyone else in the background. Though once I got into the kitchen I heard something much different. Whispering...?

I looked around, a little freaked out. Nothing in view. I shrugged and went to the pantry to get out some more Nutella. While I stood there eating some of it, I could swear I heard it again, but it sounded more like it was coming from the window this time.

Even more freaked out, I did a quick once over in my brain on whether I should investigate now and maybe die or go get the girls to help and have the whispering maybe go away. I figure it'd be a bit nicer to have the girl's get a running start from the serial killer after hearing my screams, so I slowly walked over to the window. Setting my Nutella down on the counter, I moved my hand to the little kitchen curtain to move it aside.

I screamed at the top of my lungs and almost pissed my pants seeing Kiba, Lee, and Naruto standing there with their faces almost pressed completely against the glass, all wearing freaky zombie makeup. "THE HELL ARE YOU ALL TRYING TO DO? KILL ME?" I screamed some more and ran back into the living room. "KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

"What the hell happened?" Ino asked, getting up. Temari and TenTen ran off to the kitchen to see what I was screaming about and Sakura and Hinata were huddled together in a corner, staring at me very frightened as I ran past them into a random bedroom.

I panted and let myself sit on the bed I found in there. Sakura and Hinata came running in asking me what happened.

"A-Are you ok Sophie? What h-happened?" Hinata asked quitely.

I nodded and laid back on the bed, panting from the sudden burst of energy. "Yeah, the boys are just outside in some zombie makeup." Almost on cue, the other three girls could be heard screaming in fright and then rage. I almost giggled at it.

"Again?" Sakura stood up and huffed. "Who told them this time we were having one?"

"Oh, that was supposed to be a secret?" I asked awkwardly. Whoopsie.

Sakura groaned and nodded. "Yeah, I forgot to tell you. The boys always do this kind of stuff if they know there's a sleepover. That's it, next time we're having this at your house. They don't know where you live yet." She said as she left the room to find the boys.

"Y-You sure you're ok, Sophie?" Hinata asked again.

"Yeah, it was a harmless prank. I'm just glad they didn't get you. That would have been bad." I said and patted her back.

"Th-They never try to ever s-since they did once in the e-eighth grade. I-I got so scared I fainted, actually..." Hinata explained. She kept poking her fingers together and looking down at the floor.

"Awww that's not nice at all!" I quickly pulled her over and hugged her close to death. "They will each get a ball kick from me for it."

I heard Hinata laugh silently. "S-Sakura and Ino took c-care of that back th-then."

"But I want in on that action!" I said, pulling her back and smiling at her.

She smiled back at me. "Th-Thanks."

"Anytime! Come on, let's go see how everyone's doing out there." I said and we both got up and went out into the living room where the girls were all yelling at the boys, who were laughing like idiots. Well, Lee seemed to be trying to apologize to Sakura, but it didn't seem to be working too well.

"And now they know what marriage is like." I said as I walked over. "Nothing but yelling for the guys, and being ignored for the women."

"Oh, Sophie," Naruto looked up from his ball of laughter on the floor. "Sorry about that, we weren't expecting to get you on your first time. Are you alright?" He got up, still laughing.

"No, I think I've suffered from a heart attack. The ambulance should be here in a few minutes, but I dunno if I'll make it." I said nonchalantly.

"I'll be sure to visit your comatose corpse." Naruto said gleefully.

"What a gentleman."

"Yeah, and a gentleman would know to leave now, Naruto." Sakura glared, tapping her foot.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto nudged Lee and Kiba, who looked almost purple in the face from so much laughter. "Come on, the big mean women want us gone."

"Please forgive me, Sakura!" Lee said as Naruto dragged him away. Sakura kept glaring angrily at him, but it was obvious she was just screwing with him.

After a quick check of everyone and everyturtle, it was deemed all was well. We continued to aimlessly talk about nothing, as well as talk about all the drama apparently going on in this group of friends. Such as, apparently Naruto likes Sakura, but Hinata has liked him as long as anyone can remember. Also, both Sakura and Ino are "in love" with Sasuke and have been for forever as well even though Lee likes Sakura and it's so obvious that Shikamaru likes Ino, but she's too blind to realize she likes him, too. And then there's TenTen who's been in an on again off again relationship with Hinata's big brother – also Lee's best friend – for about three years now.

I had a lot to catch up on here. And that's what we pretty much did all night. I could tell everyone was just fine with talking about all of this. I'm sure most of them enjoyed it. Especially when we got to a girl named Karin.

Now, apparently Karin is also in love with Sasuke, but it's obvious he'd rather date Lee than her. According to Sakura, Karin is obnoxious, rude, spoiled, and thinks she's the best thing since sliced freakin bread.

Ino tried to come to Karin's defense, however, since she's apparently a friend of her's. Obviously not friendly enough to get her into this sleepover, but I digress.

Karin equals bad, and we do not like her in the least. She doesn't sound like quite the amazing person, either.

After a few hours, something struck in my brain. "Hey, who exactly are the Akatsuki?" All of the girls quieted and looked over at me. Ok, a little freaky... "What?"

"The Akatsuki are bad, bad news, Sophie." TenTen said. "They're this group of guys that walk around and act like they own the whole school, even though they never talk to anyone besides themselves."

"Yeah, everyone is convinced they're with some big gang or even the frickin mob." Ino put in. "I heard they brought guns to school once because they were going to shoot it up, but their head boss man called it off for one reason or another."

"Shit, son!" I stared at them, a bit creeped out. "But what do you mean they don't talk to anyone? One of them talked to me yesterday after I took a piss." I said, confused. It was true, even if Kisame didn't exactly pull me off to the side to talk to me. He still did.

"Which one?" Temari asked, scooting closer.

"He said his name was Kisame." I said, raising an eyebrow at them all.

"And he didn't _eat _you?" Ino asked, bewildered.

"That guy's big enough to eat the entire school!" Sakura remarked.

I shook my head. "No, I bumped into him after I took a piss and he just wanted to apologize for Hidan almost killing me, I guess. Though I would rather an apology for the ass-grab..." I mumbled the last sentence, and I don't think anyone heard me after they heard the whole Hidan almost killing me bit. Is this really such a big deal?

"What did you do to piss off Hidan?" Temari asked, staring at me like I was a ghost.

"My brother almost ran him over, and I guess he only recognized me." I said, shrugging. "I bumped into them in the hall while I was in a rush and they just wouldn't let me by. At least until Naruto came over. I'm still confused about that. It's like they were hell bent on disobeying, and then when Naruto came over, he parted them like the frickin Red Sea."

"Well, duh." Ino said around her mouthful of chips. She quickly swallowed and continued, "Naruto's god grandmother is the principal of the school and his god grandfather works up at the school district." She took a sip of soda to wash down the remaining chips. "If you piss of Naruto, he could have you expelled if he really wanted to."

"N-Naruto wouldn't ever do that, though." Hinata spoke up. "He's far too nice."

"He's the only reason no one has been killed by those Akatsuki." TenTen said. "Naruto likes pretty much everyone at school and would never stand for that. And they know that." She took a bite of a Cheeto.

"Have they ever actually killed someone?" This seemed far more like rumors than cold hard facts to me.

"Of course they have!" Temari almost shouted. "They're just too clever to get caught."

"Not to mention," Sakura interjected, "Sasuke has heard Itachi on multiple occasions talk about meeting up to do stuff like knock off a certain group of people."

"Wait how would Sasuke know that?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, Itachi and Sasuke are brothers." Sakura said.

"I'm just glad Sasuke isn't into all that stuff." Ino continued.

"I dunno, I just can't believe anything without seeing the bullet holes and blood." I shrugged.

Temari let out a snort. "You just wait, one day they'll kill everyone in this school. Everyone knows that they'll do it on the last day."

"Ohh are in on the killing conspiracy with Orochimaru?" I giggled at my own inside joke.

"Oh hell no!" TenTen said. "The Akatsuki and Orochimaru _hate_ each other. When they first got here, the Akatsuki pulled a butt-load of pranks on him and still do sometimes. He hates their guts. Everyone is convinced they drove him to the insanity that he is now."

"Well good maybe they can kill each other for the opportunity to kill us." I said happily.

"Here's hoping." Sakura said.

**~X~**

When I woke up I realized I was the last one to do so. I looked around the bedroom and saw no one else but me sitting there. I got up and went into the living room where I saw everyone eating some cinnamon rolls. Sakura got me one and we all spent the rest of the day trying to come up with a way to get the boys back. Ino suggested a clown on a spring inside their lockers. Everyone agreed and we all had our parts to do. Some of us got the clown heads, the others got the springs, and the others had to find out the locker combos. TenTen would find Lee's, Sakura would find Naruto's, and Hinata would find Kiba's.

Come the end of the week, those boys were going to be scared straight! Ha.

Before any of us knew it, it was 7 PM again. We all started to phone and text our parents asking for rides home.

Of course no one was available for me. "Damn those lazy-asses!" I shut my phone and silently raged.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, coming over. Everyone else had gone by now, and we were tidying up everything that everyone missed. It wasn't much, thankfully.

"No one can drive me home."

"Do you want my parents to?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Nah, it's not too far, and I'm pretty sure I know the way. It'll be ok."

She stared for a moment more before shrugging. "Alright, but call me if you get into any trouble, got it?"

"Yes, mommy!" I saluted her.

"Aww I just don't want my wittle girly to be mwurdered!" She said in a baby voice and ruffled my hair."

"I pwomise, mommy!" I picked up my bag and Marin and gave her a hug before heading out. "See ya!"

It wasn't too dark outside yet, you could still kinda see the sunset. I turned on my iPod and put my earbuds in my ears. Listening to some My Little Pony music might make me focus.

I think I was about half way home when Winter Wrap up stopped. In the silence I could have sworn I heard something. I paused my iPod, slowed my walking, and listened. It sounded like footsteps.

Ok, so do I look behind me, or just keep walking? It's probably someone else just trying to get home, right?

I peeked behind me. Nothing.

Uh, ok?

I played my iPod again, but once Art of the Dress finished, I could swear I heard those footsteps again. I quickly looked behind me and could have sworn I saw someone disappear behind some trees. Or maybe it was just the light tricking me. It was pretty dark now.

"Naruto, if that's you, this isn't funny." I called out, hoping Naruto was just trying another scare. "Kiba? Lee? Guys seriously, this isn't cool. Come out!"

Slowly someone walked out from the area of trees I thought I saw someone go into. Guess I was right.

"Sorry, no one by those names here." The figure said slowly. All I could really make out were the guy's glasses. The light from a street lamp reflected them in a really creepy way.

"Ok, then who are you?" I asked, slowly backing up.

"It doesn't really matter." He started to walk towards me. "All that matters is that you're the perfect specimen that I've been looking for." He kept a steady pace towards me. "Yes, right height, seemingly right weight, female. Yes you'll do perfectly for my experiment."

"Look buddy, I don't want any trouble." I said, backing up quicker now. "Stop walking towards me now. I have a turtle and I am not afraid to use him!"

"Clever." He stopped walking. "But I doubt a turtle would be a really good weapon."

"It can be if I throw it hard enough at your head." I said, reaching for Martin.

"If you're quick enough, sure." The guy said. Almost in an instant he broke out into a sprint towards me and shoved me back behind the trees. "Now, we can go ahead and do this the easy way, or the hard way."

"How about you just let me go and I won't go to the police about this, ok?" I tried to reason. This guy was pretty strong and held me against a tree trunk very tightly. He was able to hold both of my arms with one hand. It really started to hurt my wrists and my back wasn't much better off being shoved against this palm tree. The spikes in the trunk were digging into my back.

"That isn't an option." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some kind of shot with a faint insignia on them that said Yakushi on the side.

"Oh hell no!" I brought my knee up to kick him in the balls, but he easily blocked me.

"I guess it's gonna be the hard way. A shame. Now I'll have to wait longer to start my work." With that statement said, he brought his arm back to stab that needle into my neck. I shut my eyes, but instead of needle pain in my skin, he was suddenly off of me and I heard him grunt in pain.

"What the hell are you doing here?" The guy asked someone.

"Taking a stroll." The new guy asked. I knew that voice.

I opened my eyes to see that Hidan guy beating the creep's lights out. This whole scene just had "wat" written all over it. What the fuck was going on? First I'm gonna be taken away to be a guinea pig, and now this guy is saving me?

Hidan lifted up the creep and tossed him aside. "Get out of here. Stop preying on innocent people for your sick experiments."

"Tch." The creep gave him a glare before running off in another direction.

I could only stare from the place the creep left, to Hidan.

"You ok?" Hidan asked, though it sounded like he really didn't care.

I nodded slowly. "Uh, yeah I am. He didn't get me with that weird shot thing so..."

"Good, then I won't have to drop you off at the hospital." He said before walking away.

"Wait!" I called and moved in his direction.

He stopped and seemed hesitant, but turned around anyways. "What?"

"Did you know that guy?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Who was he?"

"Doesn't matter." He turned back around. "Just don't go walking around at night, ok? It's a small town, but there are tons of guys that would just love to get their hands on a girl like you. A lot would like to get their hands more inside of you, though." He chuckled and turned his head back. "They just love organs and blood." With that, he walked off.

I stood there for only a few moments before running straight home. I don't know what just happened, but I'm pretty sure a member of the Akatsuki just saved my life and my mental sanity.

Guess I was in the right place at the right time, in a way.

**~X~**

_BUT ABBY IT'S JUST SO CLICHE AND THAT KIND OF STUFF ALWAYS HAPPENS AND AND AND AND RANT RANT BLAH BLAH TROLL RANT BLAH!_

_Yeah, and? I'm not doing it to make her a Mary-Sue or have everything happen to her. A lot of this is just for plot development. Honestly. If you don't want to read a highschool fic, then don't. But I wanna write one :D And what's so bad about wanting to write something that's cliche? Gives me practice!  
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_This is way better than the other chapter I had going, believe me. This pleases me much more._


	3. Hot Lunches

_Ok I need to start this off first by saying I realized I was stupid to listen to one piece of negative feedback. What the fuck, me? I like how this is, other do, too, and I really don't care what that person has to say right now. At the end is a reply to them that I typed up. I hope you all enjoy this. (Sorry for the late-ness. I'm going through stuff right now. Expect slow updates :/ Sorry I really, really am.)  
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_Hot Lunches_

I hadn't said much when I got home. I told everyone the party was fun, but I was tired, so I was going to spend the rest of the evening upstairs.

Not that I slept. My eyes just didn't seem to want to shut after today. I mean, I was almost taken away forever to be experimented on, and then a big bad gang member saves me. It's like if Voldemort was about to kidnap me, and then Jason came along and rescued me. It's one of the scariest things you could imagine, and makes no sense what so ever.

For the rest of the night I kept thinking about what Jason would look like as a superhero and what kind of superpower he would have. I fell asleep before I had a good concept, but I figured this could keep my mind busy for a while.

On the way to school the next day, Alex seemed to suspect something was up. He was always good at that.

"If you keep spacing out, your face is gonna freeze like that." He said as we came to a stop light.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "What kind of face were you making when yours froze?"

"Haha, very funny," he mocked, "But seriously, is there something up? You've been a bit out of it since last night. Did something happen at that party?"

"What? No, the party was fun and perfectly fine." I said. Truthfully, nothing bad had happened at that party. Unless you count zombie boys coming to eat our brains. Kinky, ain't it?

He gave me a long look until the light turned green. "Alright." He went off and we were soon at the school.

Alex went off to stand with the people that he's met, and I walked around until I found Sakura and Naruto and the rest of them. The moment Sakura saw me, she shoved almost everyone out of the way and ran over to me.

"What the hell happened last night?" She almost yelled. Her eyes were wide as she stared at me. I froze for a moment. Did she actually know what happened? No, that's impossible unless she followed me. Right?

"Uh, what?" I asked, trying to doge the question.

"You never called me! I thought someone had killed you! You didn't even get on Facebook or anything." Sakura went on.

I felt a little relieved and sighed quietly. "Oh, right, sorry. I was just so tired when I got home, I collapsed on my bed."

"You sure?" She asked.

"Totally!" I gave her a reassuring smile.

"Well, alright." With that we went over to the others and talked until the bell rang. Naruto and I rushed to Asuma's class and quickly got to our seats, just in time for the bell to ring.

I hissed as my back hit the chair just a little too hard. I'm sure it didn't look too pretty back there. Nothing punctured skin, but it must have left some kind of bruise.

"You alright, Sophie?" Naruto glanced over.

"Huh? Yeah, why?" I asked, taking out my pony binder.

"Nothing." Naruto shook his head and looked back up front as Asuma started talking.

Half way through English, the incident crept into my mind again. Why would Hidan save me like that? From what I hear, these guys are hard-asses who don't seem to look out for anyone but themselves. Of course, teenage girls aren't usually the place to go to for cold hard facts. Maybe Naruto would know something since it seems he has some friends in high places.

When the bell rang, I grabbed Naruto's arm to slow him down so I could talk to him. We started to slowly walk out of the classroom and through the halls. "Naruto, can you tell me what you know about the Akatsuki?"

He gave me this really weird face, like I was asking the president if aliens existed. "What? Why?"

"I just need to know if what people say is true. Are they really a ruthless gang of misfits that go around wanting to shoot places up?" I whispered.

"Well, they never actually did anything, but they were seen by students having guns in their backpacks." Naruto whispered as well.

"Yeah, I already heard about that, but do they really not care about anyone but themselves?" I asked as we neared my history class.

"No one thinks they do. They've never really interacted with anyone but themselves." Naruto shrugged then looked at me again. "Why do you want to know?"

I stared at Naruto for a moment, contemplating. Should I tell him? He seems like the kind of guy who would keep a secret. Not to mention I was burning to tell someone about what happened... "If you really want to know... Last night when I walked home from Sakura's party, some guy attacked me, but Hidan came along and saved me."

Naruto stared at me with his mouth open. "That guy _saved_ _you?_"

"Yeah, that's why I'm curious." I told him.

He shook his head to clear it and then looked at his watch. "Look we can talk about this at lunch, for now I gotta get going to class." With that, he was off, and I went into my classroom, sighing heavily. Stupid school, why can't it give people more time to talk? This important shit!

All I could think about through both history and P.E was last night. Why did Hidan save me? Why did that guy attack me? Who was that guy? Why did it seem like Hidan and the creep knew each other? What was Hidan doing around that area of town anyways? Are the Akatsuki really as bad as everyone makes them out to be? Or are they just socially awkward?

By the end of P.E I had the perfect idea. I'd never given much thought to it, but the Akatsuki did eat lunch at the same time I did. I figure I could go up to the table and thank Hidan properly to see exactly how he'd react. Depending on how he reacts, they are either killers, or socially awkward. I was really hoping for socially awkward, but I was also kinda hoping for a big drama bomb to happen. Who wouldn't like for them to yank out some guns and start shooting? As long as I live, I'm good.

When I walked out of gym and caught up with Naruto I told him my plan. I don't think he approves, though.

"WHAT?" He yelled as soon as I was done explaining, "That's _suicide!_ You can do that!"

"Why? What's the worst that could happen?" I asked while taking my hands away from my ears. I giggled a bit at his reaction.

"They could...! Well they could... Something really bad would happen!" He flailed his arms about.

"That's so scary!" I feigned a scared face.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Seriously, this won't turn out good."

"Well if they bring out a bunch of SMGs and assault rifles, you, Kiba, and Sasuke are fully welcome to come save me. I don't think Lee could do much to help, sadly." I said. "But try to get me a gun, ok? I need a weapon for when the zombies rise up, preferably the assault rifle."

Naruto just stared at me. "Assault rifle? Hell no, machine gun all the way."

"What?"

For the rest of the trip to the lunch room, Naruto and I debated over what weapons, hiding spots, and strategies were best for zombie killing. We came to a stalemate on whether Wal-Mart or a grocery store was a better place to hide out for a few months.

Naruto and I sat down at our table and I glanced around. It didn't take me long to find the Akatsuki. They were in a corner and stood out pretty well considering no one dared to sit three tables or more closer to them. I don't think the boys really cared.

I set my lunch box on the table and my backpack on the chair with my Adventure Time hat. "I'm going in." I simply said before walking in the Akatsuki's direction. I could almost hear Sakura's quiet protests when she figured out what I was doing. I could also feel the table's eyes on my back. As I walked over I felt a few more eyes on me, but not too many.

Once I was only a table away, the boys started to look up from their conversation about, well, I'm not really sure. They whispered even though no one was anywhere near them. I could swear I heard the word "bucking" though.

The closer I got to the table I noticed that there was a girl sitting in the back next to the piercings guy. Huh, well what do you know? She had blue hair and a piercing on her bottom lip, but she also had this paper flower in her hair. She was really pretty and made the entire look work. She looked sophisticated in a way instead of cheap.

I walked over to the area Hidan was in and put on a nice smile. "Hey, Hidan was it?"

"Yeah, who wants to know?" He asked, putting his taco down onto his Styrofoam tray that every single cafeteria has.

"I just wanted to say thanks for last night. I realized I never said it, and I figured under the circumstances, you deserved thanks." I said, still smiling.

Hidan stared at me and then at his buddies. "Uh, yeah, ok."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell happened last night, Hidan?" A blond leaned over and asked him. I couldn't tell from the appearance, but the voice told me this was a male. You could have fooled me with the long hair.

"Nothing you need to know about." Hidan shoved the blond back into his seat, but I could tell blondie was enjoying this.

"You know I need to know everything, so, what happened?" He kept prodding him.

"Yeah, Hidan." I heard Kisame say. "It can't be too bad."

Hidan kept silent and glared at the two of them, picking up his taco again. So far, they seem like you're typical group of friends. No guns have been pulled on me yet, at least. Personally I see that as a good sign. I couldn't even tell where they'd hide any, unless they were hidden inside their bodies.

"Obviously he isn't gonna talk." Kisame said. "Sophie."

I jumped a bit when he said my name. "Huh?" I looked up at him. Yeah, I still had to look up at him while he sat and I stood. Just how tall was this guy?

"What exactly are you thanking him for?" Kisame asked me.

"Uh, it's kinda a long story so..."

"We have time." Blondie said standing up pulling me over and sitting me down in the chair he was previously occupying while he went to get another chair for himself, "Go on."

"Like hell she will." Hidan said, about to stand up. The guy next to him put a hand on his shoulder, effectively sitting him back down. The guy was dark skinned and had what seemed like a mask over his face. How did I not notice him before?

"Hidan," the masked man said, "Calm down. You know as well as I do that if she doesn't say it now, they'll find her later."

"Fuck off, Kakuzu!" Hidan glared at him, but stayed where he was anyways.

"Please continue, Sophie, was it?" The blond said. By now the whole table was looking over at me. Obviously they didn't mind putting some outsider in the spotlight, especially when it came to one of their own. To be honest I'd probably be doing the same if one of my friends wouldn't say what I wanted to know, but shit! I wasn't as nervous as before, but I didn't expect to be storytelling while I was here. It didn't look like I had much choice, though. I cleared my throat and kept glancing back at Hidan's kinda scary glare.

"Don't mind him," a redhead from behind me said. "He's just being pouty that he isn't getting his way."

"Shut up, Sasori." Hidan glared more at him.

I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "Well do you want the gist of it, or the whole thing?"

"Definitely the whole thing," Kisame said.

"Alright," I sat up straight. If I was going to tell a story, I was going to tell it right. "Well, you see, yesterday I was coming home from my friend's house when it was getting dark. On the way to my house I was attacked by a random man. We struggled for what I thought was forever, and I was sure I was about to be taken off for Area 51 experiments or something when the guy brought out a needle. Thankfully your friend here came over, whooped the guy's ass, and probably saved my entire life. I think he deserves a thank you or two, don't you?"

Kisame reached over and patted Hidan's back – he was certainly large enough to do such an act. "Good job, Hidan. You've earned your good boy badge for the week."

"But _Tobi's_ a good boy!" Some guy I hadn't noticed before jumped up. He ran over to me and suddenly hugged me. "Tobi's glad that Hidan saved the nice lady!"

Who am I to pass up a good hug? I smiled and hugged the boy back. "I'm pretty happy about it myself."

"Well it was nice of you to stop by," Hidan picked his taco up again and took a bite. "You're welcome and stuff. See you around." He said with a mouthful of meat. HA.

"Oh come on, Hidan," the masked guy – I think his name was Kakuzu – said and snatched Hidan's taco. "No need to be rude."

"Give me back the taco." Hidan glared at him.

I couldn't tell for sure, but I think Kakuzu was smiling, "Nope."

Hidan stood up, glaring more. Kakuzu stood up as well. They had a staring contest for a moment, but I didn't get to see much more of what happened since Kisame moved to block my view.

"Don't mind them, this happens almost every day." He said, grinning down at me.

"Hidan never gets to finish his lunch it seems," Blondie said.

"Hey," I said, looking over at Blondie, "I never got your name."

"Oh, it's Deidara."

"Cool name," I said and leaned over to poke at the hair that covered his left eye. "Oh. My. God."

He raised an eyebrow at me, "What?"

"Your hair is one of the softest things I've ever felt!" I said and went to grab more of it. He ducked out of the reach of my hand.

Deidara laughed at my pouty face and put on a smirk, "Thanks, I try my best to take care of it."

"Deidara has pretty, pretty hair!" Tobi sang happily. He was now sharing my seat with me. I noticed that his eyes were different colors now that he was sitting this close.

"Shut up, Tobi," Deidara gave him an annoyed stare.

Tobi's face dropped, "But Tobi's a good boy!"

I patted Tobi's head, "Yes he is."

Tobi sprung up almost immediately and hugged me. "Tobi knew new girl was a nice lady!"

"Tobi, you're going to kill her if you keep hugging her like that," the girl at the end of the table spoke for the first time.

"Sorry Konan!" Tobi let go of me, still smiling.

"That's a pretty name, Konan," I said, smiling down the table at her.

I couldn't be sure but I think she smiled back, "Thank you."

"Oh yeah," Kisame said, "I forgot that you're new here and you don't know everyone's names." I shook my head. Kisame started to point everyone out in turn, "You already know Hidan and Kakuzu over there," by now the two were all but wrestling on the floor, "And you know Tobi well enough by now. The rest are Sasori, Itachi, Zetsu, and Pein down there at the end."

I recognized Pein as the guy that kept Hidan from killing my brother's car the first day here. I smiled at them all and some of them smiled back. Itachi and Pein seemed like stone statues, never moving, even the slightest.

"Hey, you're Sasuke's brother, right?" I asked Itachi.

He nodded, "Yes, I am."

"I thought so, you look like him." I said as I noticed that I left my lunch back at the other table. I glanced over and saw that the whole table was staring over at all of us. I don't know what they expected to happen. "Well I guess I should be off, my lunch is still over there."

"Don't be silly," Tobi said and reached over to his previous seat, picked up his box, and handed it to me, "You can have some of Tobi's lunch!" He opened it up to reveal two Yoo-Hoo juice boxes, a PB&J, Cheetos, and some Toy Story fruit snacks.

I think I heard someone about to say something like, "She isn't going to want any of that little kid crap, Tobi!" But I was already ripping open a Yoo-Hoo straw and tearing open the fruit snacks.

"Oh my god Buzz and Woody are so cute as fruit snacks!" I said, picking up a few of them. "Tobi you are amazing." I could hear Kisame laughing as Tobi hugged me to death again.

For the rest of lunch, me and Tobi acted out Toy Story scenes, Hidan and Kakuzu fought over a taco – it was more like a ripped up tortilla now, which Tobi stole so we could act out the scene where Mr. Potato Head had to be a tortilla – and the others talked amongst themselves. All in all, these guys seemed cool. The only one I could see harming anything so far was Hidan, and even he looked like a puppy wrestling with Kakuzu.

To be honest, from across the lunchroom, their fight could look a little hostile, but listening to it took away all the scariness. I mean, it was over a taco for Pete's sake! I don't understand why people thought these guys were so bad.

When the bell rang I gave Tobi one last hug and went to meet back up with Naruto and Sakura. They handed me my lunch and backpack all while looking at me like I was an alien.

"Am I growing a carrot out of my forehead?" I asked, putting my hat on.

"You just spent lunch with the Akatsuki, and lived!" Sakura almost screamed.

"Yeah, amazing isn't it? They didn't pull out any guns while I drank a Yoo-Hoo and played with fruit snacks. Honestly I don't see what the big deal is; they're all really nice people. Sure some are a bit colder than others, but they don't seem like they could kill anyone." I said and glanced over at them again, "It was a nice hot lunch, too." I was obviously not referring to the food.

"Just don't push your luck," Naruto said. "You came out fine today, but luck always runs out."

I could only laugh as I walked off to math, "You sound like a fortune cookie."

**~X~**

"Sophie, dinner's ready!" Mom called from downstairs.

"Coming!" I got up and ran downstairs. I was starving after having nothing but Lotso fruit snacks since breakfast. I just couldn't bring myself to eat anyone but him at lunch.

I slid into the kitchen and sat down, grabbing two slices of pizza and shoving half of one into my mouth.

"A regular debutant," Alex said, eating his piece.

"I'm so fancy the Queen herself curtsies to me!" I said around my mouthful of pizza.

"I've never seen the Queen come visit you," Dave said.

I swallowed my mouthful, "That's because she only comes when you're at work."

"You better give her our good tea. I don't want to be disliked by someone like her."

"Aye, aye."

Once dinner was done I went back upstairs just in time to hear my phone ringing. I jumped over to my desk, grabbed it, and answered it, "Hello?"

"Sophie! Where have you been? I called you like five times!" I heard Max on the other side of the phone.

"Uh, Max, I was eating dinner."

The phone was silent for a moment. I heard her clear her throat, "I knew that."

I laughed, "Uh huh, so what's up?"

"What else? I miss you!" She said excitedly. "Everyone else does, too, but I miss you the most!"

"Yeah I don't doubt that one bit. What have you been up to?"

"Eh not much, it's been boring since you left, ya know."

"Well, duh! I'm amazing after all," I said, grinning even though Max couldn't see it.

"And just what has little Miss Amazing been up to?" Max asked. "Meet anyone that's even a fraction of my awesome?"

"No one has met you in terms of awesome, but in terms of energy, I think I met someone who can beat you. Two people actually," I said thinking of Naruto and Lee.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Max yelled, "I WON'T STAND FOR THIS!"

"Which is why you're probably sitting right now?"

The other line went silent and I could imagine Max pout-glaring at the phone.

I laughed, "But no one is as awesome as you yet. I don't think I'll ever find anyone like that."

"Ok, you better not!"

"As long as you promise the same."

"Duh. So, anything interesting in Florida yet?"

"Hmm," I thought for a moment, "Oh! I had lunch today with the school's local gang."

"WHAT? YOU LEAVE ME AND ANDREW AND TURN INTO A GANG MEMBER? I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE A BAD GIRL!" Max yelled again. "OH GOD I'M GOING TO HAVE TO BAIL YOU OUT OF JAIL! DON'T GET A TATTOO, YOU HEAR ME? THUG LIFE ISN'T COOL! REMAIN A TRUE NERD! IT'S FUN WITHOUT THE RISK OF DEATH!"

I laughed all over again, falling off of my bed with a loud _'thud!' _I took a few deep breaths and got back onto my bed after a few minutes. "Don't worry. Everyone at school says that they're horrible, but I think they're just misunderstood. The entire time the only things that happened were two of them fighting for a taco, while me and this other guy played with his Toy Story fruit snacks."

Max was silent for a moment. Then, "No one who eats fruit snacks is an evil gang member."

"That's what I said! Kinda... But yeah, it was fun."

"Are you gonna sit with them again?" Max asked.

"Nah, I don't think that'll happen. The only reason it did this time is because they wanted to annoy one of the guys at the table, I think."

"That's not nice!" Max called out.

"High school isn't nice, Max," I said.

"You've got me there." Max was about to say more but I could hear her mom yelling from downstairs. "I gotta go, dinner time! See ya."

"Yeah, yeah, go feed your fat."

"You know it."

After we hung up I went over to my computer and opened up a Firefox window, iTunes, and my signed onto Skype. I put my playlist on shuffle and went right to Facebook. I swear this site has crack or something in it. No one can be this addicted to a website.

When I got on I saw that I had two friend requests.

"I'M POPULAR!" I shouted throwing my hands up in the air and doing a quick chair spin, then quickly went to see who they were.

My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw who they were. Kisame and Tobi both wanted to add me. To be honest, Tobi didn't surprise me all that much. He seems like a friendly kid. Kisame was the one that confused me a bit. That was mostly because I never imagined him with a Facebook. Regardless, I accepted them both. Why not? It's not like we're besties forever now that they're on my friends list. I have people there that I haven't talked to since middle school. Don't know why I haven't deleted them yet.

I spent a few hours on my computer before going to bed. I filled up those hours with deviantART, Facebook, and other surface web sites. Funny how so many people have no idea what's really on that Internet.

Soon it was midnight, and I needed sleep. I got off and jumped into bed.

**~X~**

"I'm telling you, Sharpies are better than markers!" I said to Naruto.

"No they aren't they barely cover anything, and they bleed way too much," Naruto argued back. "Not mention they're all a lot darker than markers."

"If I need to cover a very large area, I can look for a large Sharpie, or maybe resort to markers, but other than that, Sharpies are the best." I said.

"So you do admit to using markers!" Naruto pointed at me while he got the lunch room door for us.

"Well yeah, it's like using a Mac when your PC fails. It gets the job done, but it's just not as good." I walked through the door.

"Markers are so not in the same boat as a Mac!" Naruto stared at me like I was crazy.

"Maybe not Crayola ones, but others do!"

"Yeah, Crayola is the only way to go." Naruto agreed.

"Good, we can agree on that!" I said as we headed to our table. About half way there I felt something hard collide with me from behind. "Oof!" I stumbled and just barely kept my balance as I looked behind me to see a smiling face.

"Is Sophie going to sit with us again today?" Tobi asked happily.

I blinked at him dumbly. "Me?" I pointed at myself.

"Of course!" Tobi smiled. "Everyone likes Sophie. She's nice and fun!" I looked from Naruto to Tobi. Naruto looked just as confused as I was. Tobi hugged me tighter, "Pleeeaasseee, Sophie?"

I couldn't help but laugh, "Um I guess if Naruto doesn't mind you stealing me away from their table."

Naruto raised an eyebrow and looked at Tobi for what seemed like forever, "Yeah, sure."

"YAY!" Tobi jumped off of me and ran over to the table.

I was about to walk off to the table when I felt a hand around my wrist. My head turned back to see Naruto staring seriously at me, "Be careful. If you need us, we're right over here, ok?"

"Don't worry," I said, giving him a quick hug, "I don't think they'll pull out a knife and stab me."

With that, I skipped over to the Akatsuki's table, "Hello again, all." I could feel Naruto's eyes on my back.

"Well what do you know," Sasori said, "You were right, Kisame. She did come back."

Kisame sat back in his chair, grinning, "I'm always right, Sasori. You know that."

"Tobi said you all missed me, so I figured I should come over and make sure that you didn't go insane from the grief of losing me." I said, looking around for a spot to sit in. I found one in between Itachi and Deidara.

"How considerate of you," Hidan said.

"Yup!" I walked over and sat between the two males, setting my lunch box on the table.

Somehow, this is how the rest of the week went. Every day I thought they were sick of me, but then one of them would find me before I got to my usual table and bring me over here. I never questioned why they kept asking me over. I was having fun eating lunch with them.

I made sure my other group of friends knew I didn't forget about them. The entire week I kept up my side of the deal and got the necessary materials for the prank we were going to pull on the boys. Friday morning we had everything set. Ino bribed the janitor to let us in. He seemed happy to, not that I'd mind!

We each got a locker to work on. Within half an hour we got the dolls rigged up as well as cameras to video tape the whole thing – we decided to go with the puppet thing from SAW instead of clowns.

Soon people started showing up at the school. We acted normal all morning until the first bell rang. The boys went to their lockers to collect their morning things, but were greeted by Jigsaw dolls and creepy laughter instead.

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure we pissed ourselves laughing more than the boys did screaming.

**~X~**

_Short, yeah, but oh well. Review, please!_

_As for that review reply… I had this whole big paragraph essay typed out… I was going to explain myself for everything, but then I remembered a rule. A special rule. The Rules of the Internet clearly state, "Never take anything on the Internet seriously."_

_Now with that out of the way, thanks for the constructive criticism, honey! Seriously! The only thing keeping me from going back and fixing all of that is the fact that I'm so goddamn lazy! And, ya know what, you did make me rage! YOU DISTRACTED ME FROM SCHOOL YOU FUCKER D: Well I'm gonna go do that and upload this. Yeah, it's also pretty quick. But hey, maybe I'll make everything spread out later. _

_**So if you all don't hear from me for a long time it's because that little fucker made me go make my story better. KEEL HER/HIM FOR MAKING ME IMPROVE MYSELF! RAWR!**_

_Thanks for the review though. I was a little cheesed off, but now I see that I can improve the quick-ness. And I think I will… Why not? I'll do that after I finish up boring school! (Stupid fucking teachers won't call me back…!) _


	4. Fight! For Honor!

I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! I didn't actually re-write anything. I just got lazy. HA! Seriously though, family stuff, school, slight depression, I just haven't felt like doing fanfiction stuff. But of COURSE I got another message from ANOTHER little miss. TruthBeTold, you fail as a troll. You know that, right? Since you're anonymous, read your reply at the end of the chapter. Thank you!

As for everyone else, enjoy this chapter! I know I enjoyed typing it up. I might have been oh so SLIGHTLY high on sugar, but that makes it fun, right? RIGHT? Right.

Enjoy!

_Fight! For Honor!_

The weekend, finally!

I sighed happily as I woke up and saw it was 9 AM. It was always so nice knowing that I didn't have to get out of bed right then. I'd stay in bed all day long if I could, but the computer called to me. I got up in about ten minutes and realized something else called louder. Shower, right. I quickly ran to the bathroom.

An hour later, I was clean and full of cereal, finally ready for my lovely computer. Oh what would I do today? Play a game? Lurk some boards? Start some drama on Facebook? Browse a million videos on YouTube? The possibilities were endless!

Before I could decide I found myself already on Facebook. I slapped a hand to my forehead, "Stupid crack site."

I noticed I had some friend requests when I looked up in the top bar. Quickly, I clicked the icon and saw that almost all of the Akatsuki had requested me. I couldn't help the smile that splashed across my face, especially when I caught a glance at Itachi and Deidara's pictures. Those pictures looked almost professional.

Naturally I accepted each one and sat back and waited. I guess Facebook drama is going to occupy my time today.

It wasn't long before I got my first message from Kiba, "Since when are you friends with the Akatsuki on here?"

I laughed and replied back, "Since about ten minutes ago."

"How the hell did that happen?"

"Beats me, all of a sudden I got friend requests, so I figured why not!" I shrugged, even though he couldn't see.

"There has to be some reason."

"Not that I know of."

"You sure you don't have some nude pics or something on here that I'm missing?" Kiba asked.

I laughed more, "Sorry, Kiba, but I have those set so only the Akatsuki can see them ;D"

"That's just cruel, and you know it."

"Mwahaha!"

Eventually I had Kiba, Sakura, Naruto, Hinata, and Ino asking about my new friends. I told them all that I wasn't sure why they added me, but it didn't matter. Just because you're friends on Facebook doesn't mean you're going to get married. Of course I wouldn't mind, but still.

Halfway through my explanation to Ino, I got a message from Max, "OMFG ARE THOSE THE GUYS YOU WERE TELLING ME ABOUT! SHIT GIRL! I'D SIT WITH EM TOO! Fuck, I'd sit ON them! Please tell me you've at least scored lap action?"

I finished up my reply to Ino and started typing to Max, "Lap action? Sorry but I don't think they could afford a lap dance from me. This hoe don't come cheap!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but please tell me you're moving in on one? DO YOU SEE THEM? I'M WET JUST LOOKING AT THEM!"

"Put away the lady boner, Max, lol. All that I've done with any of them is hugging Tobi. Actually, he hugs me just cause... He's Tobi. That's why!"

"Shit, even he's hot."

"I KNOW!" I quickly typed. All of a sudden my teenage girl excitement spilled out. I had to admit, being hugged by someone like Tobi made me happy every time. He was pretty damn hot in his own way. Fuck, they're all hot. I just can't say that around anyone but Max it seems. I figure this is my only opportunity to do so. Oh what fun!

"I give you my permission to have sex with all of them, just no babies or STDs!"

"Sorry Max but I don't think that will be happening."

"YOU'RE GETTING PREGNANT?"

"LMAO NO! I mean I won't be having sex, idiot!"

"Ohhhh… I would."

I laughed more, "No you wouldn't. You'd just stare at them like an idiot once they got their shirt off."

"...How about you shut the fuck up?"

"Nope! But seriously. They've been ASKING me to sit with them. It's a different guy each day, Max! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

"They want in your pants."

"If guys like that find a girl like me to be hot, I will gladly keep sitting with them." Ego boost!

"Right? But fuck, bitch, you're sexy and you know it."

"Not enough for THEM! LOOK AT THEM! THEY'RE GODS! Even the chick is hot."

"Oh yeah, I saw a picture of her in one of the guys' pics... I'd gladly turn lesbian for that."

"Right? She seems nice, too, but I think she belongs to Pein, the red head with the piercings." I always saw her with him and Pein seemed to get angry if any guys but the Akatsuki got too close to her.

"I wonder where else he has pierced..."

"Yeah I'm sure he has a rod right through his dick, Max."

"Kinky."

"And painful sounding!" Even as a girl I can imagine what pain that would cause. Well, his name IS Pein… Maybe he's a masochist.

"Yeah well pain can be nice ;D"

"Focus, Max. We don't need a description of your fetishes."

"Darn! So, you gonna keep eating with them?"

"Probably. I totally will if they keep dragging me away. I wanna eat with Naruto and Sakura and them but I just can't seem to say no to the boys." Sure, I hung out with Naruto and the others before and after school, as well as in between classes and during class.

"You'd understand if I left you for a sexy man, right?"

"Well I would be sad if you always did it! D:"

"True... Well, see how it goes. If ya wanna sit with your other friends, do it one day. I'm sure the Sex Gods won't mind."

"Thanks Max. I might try that. Cause, seriously, these people are fun."

"That Naruto kid isn't too bad looking either... -Eyebrow Wiggle-"

"Oh hush, you! Hinata's got eyes for him anyways." I heard my mom call me from downstairs, "Coming!" I yelled to her.

"And you've got yourself some sexy gang bang time!"

"LOL, right, well, I gotta get going. Mom needs me, see you later!"

"Bye!"

**~X~**

The weekend never lasts as long as you want, and you never seem to do all the things you plan on doing. I could plan on anything from eating a grape to skydiving from the moon and I still wouldn't get it done. The weekend is a time for spur of the moment things. You don't plan out how you'll have fun. If you do it's no fun at all. As usual I ended up playing games and talking to people on Facebook all weekend. It wasn't so bad. But of course I was a moron and stayed up way too late on Sunday battling Alex in a game. Neither of us got to sleep until about 3 AM, which made us wake up very late for school. Mom wasn't happy.

We made it to school just in time to hear the first bell as we pulled into the parking lot. Alex was a bit more chill than I was. _His_ class wasn't on the other side of the damn school!

I looked at my phone and cursed under my breath as I ran into the school. I only had five minutes to haul ass there. I sped through the halls so fast I didn't notice when I almost ran into Sasori as he was coming out of the potty.

"Oh, sorry, late for class, can't talk, gotta go!" I went past him and almost ran into Kisame who came out right after him. "Dude, are you all having a meeting in there?"

"No, we aren't females, we don't go in groups," Sasori said.

"Ok well we can chat later, gotta go!" I said and waved as I ran away. Of course the universe just hates me and loves watching me smack into people. I just barely missed some chick as I came up on a corner. "Fuck you universe! Just lemme get to class!" I shook my fist at the ceiling.

"Why the rush?" The chick asked, giving me a nasty look.

"Late for class, obviously." I told her, trying to go around her, but she had some other pals with her that blocked my way.

The girl peeked around behind me to see Sasori and Kisame looking over, "Late, huh?" She pulled out her phone and smirked behind her hair. "Well we shouldn't keep you then."

With that her little friends moved aside. I didn't wait around to figure out just what the hell she was doing or who she was, I booked it. I literally skidded into the classroom right as the bell rang. I panted all the way to my desk. A lot of people were giving me these weird looks. Some looked disgusted, others almost afraid, and some with really, I dunno, perverted smiles?

I sat down in my desk next to Naruto, pooped. My body is not meant for that much exercise.

"Where were you all morning?" He asked as he fiddled with a pencil in his hand, his phone in his other under the desk.

"Alex and I slept in this morning," I said, putting my bag down next to my seat and taking my Adventure Time hat off and sticking it next to it. On a side note I'd like to add that Tobi is absolutely in love with my hat, but insists I wear it instead of him because I look, "Cuter." Well, that works for me, although I should add that I did blush when he said that. A Sex God just called me cute. Fuck. Yeah.

"You sure that's all?" Naruto kept fiddling with his pencil and looking down at his phone then back at me skeptically.

"Yeah why wouldn't it be?"

"People have been talking ever since you've been hanging out with the Akatsuki, and especially since you added them on Facebook this weekend."

"They have? What, have I been in the boys locker room having a… One, two, three…" I trailed off, counting on my fingers. "Having a ten way with them?" I held up all my fingers.

"Not the locker room…" Naruto mumbled then brought up his phone to discreetly show me what was written in his newest text.

"New girl Sophie was just seen walking out of the boy's bathroom with Kisame and Sasori. She claimed she needed to hurry to class or she'd be late. That's what happens when you have an early morning fuck, honey!"

I couldn't believe it. So that's what that girl was doing with her phone. Well, I wasn't going to let some chick I didn't even know get to me like this. I knew I was late because of Half Life and not because of sex. That was good enough for me, and I hope Naruto would believe me as well.

I put my hand over my chest in mock shock, "Why I _never!_ How dare those scoundrels! I have touched nary a buttock on those fine gentleman and lady! Oh the cruelty of this crazy environment we call a school!" I said the whole thing in a southern accent.

Naruto couldn't keep a straight face and began laughing wildly, dropping his pencil and almost falling out of his chair. "Since when are you a southern belle?"

"Dear Mister Uzumaki I would hope you'd have realized by now just how southern and belle like this girl can be!" I continued my accent.

Until lunch I paraded around the school from class to class acting like a regular southern gal. It was pretty funny if I do say so myself. At one point Naruto and I thought it would be funny if I "confessed" my love for Lee while pretending to be all "Southern." Naruto said that he'd definitely play along. On the way to second period we found him in the hall.

"Oh, Mister Lee! I have been searching for you all day!" I ran up to him quick as a whip and stopped right before I barreled into him. "There is something I just must tell you this instant or I'm sure I won't be able to stand it!"

Lee gave me the most confused look ever. He looked from me to Naruto behind me and back. I think he got the message that he was supposed to play along, "What is it, my dear? What could possibly drive you to act as such? Please! Tell me immediately what is exciting you so!"

"Mister Lee, I just can't stand it! I must tell you, in front of everyone!" I put one hand over my chest and held the other one out for Lee to hold.

He took it, and I could see the side of his mouth twitch as he tried to keep from laughing, "What is it?"

"I have fallen heels over head for you, Mister Lee! You've wooed me and caught me in your grasp from the moment that I saw your face." I gasped and took the hand from my chest and put it on my forehead, "Please accept my love, for I have nary an idea of what I would do if you did not!"

"Of course I shall accept your undying love, my lady!" Lee got down onto his knee in front of me, still forcing himself not to laugh. "I would be no less than a fool if I did not!"

"Oh joyous day!" I declared.

Sadly, our little scene was broken up when the second bell rang and a teacher shooed us all away. Lee, Naruto, and I couldn't stop laughing until we got to class. I couldn't stop until after second period.

I'm sure by the time I was walking to P.E everyone had forgotten about the text-spam of the morning. Who could ever suspect a southern belle such as myself to be so scandalous?

By lunchtime I had gotten almost all of my friends to play along with me – Sasuke wanted nothing to do with it. While I walked to the lunchroom I felt like a regular Scarlet O'Hara! The boys pretended to fawn while I acted like the bee's knees and the cat's meow. I even made a bet with Kiba that one day I'd come to school in a huge dress and walk around like that all day. If I did it by the end of the year, he'd have to dress up as a gorilla for a day. And if I didn't, then the last day of the year I'd have to come to school dressed as a banana, a gorilla, or a maid. Kiba can be quite a pervert at times. You should see how he teases Hinata. Yikes. But that's what childhood friends do.

As I walked through the lunchroom doors, on cue, Tobi came sprinting towards me and nearly knocked me over in a huge hug.

"YAY SOPHIE IS HERE! TOBI MISSED SOPHIE!" Tobi yelled in my ear.

"Why I do declare! Sophia missed you too, dear Tobi!" I kept up the act and hugged him back.

"Come on! To lunch!" Tobi grabbed my hand and almost ran off with me when Naruto and Lee stepped in front of him, grinning mischievously.

"Just where are you going with our dear Sophie?" Lee asked him.

"To lunch!" Tobi smiled.

"You do realize, kind sir, that if you want our Sophie, you must fight for her!" Lee bellowed, sticking a plastic spoon out in front of him with a tray as a shield.

"Indeed!" Naruto stuck out a straw instead of a spoon, "On guard, wretch!"

Tobi stood still for a moment, either confused or thinking. I could see the Akatsuki table from where I was and saw that they were looking over curiously. Deidara got up and walked over, putting a hand on Tobi's shoulder.

"What's all this about?" He asked in a light tone.

"These boys are going to have a duel for my honor!" I told him, smiling, but trying to act afraid and helpless. Naruto and Lee looked a little nervous, but held their ground.

Deidara smirked. "A duel, eh? I'll take that challenge!" He grabbed himself a weapon and shield. Naruto and Lee smiled got into position.

"The winner shall have the privilege of forever eating lunch with dear Sophie!" Lee called as Tobi got his own weapons.

"Challenge accepted." Deidara smirked and before I knew it, they were off. They were on tables and chairs; running, ducking, sliding, jumping all over the place; dodging each blow, trying to nail a hit to the other.

During this whole fight, not one teacher intervened. I guess it was because Naruto's grandpa or whatever is high up on the school board and they're plain scared of the Akatsuki. Fuck if I care, this is way better than any T.V show I've ever seen!

At one point Tobi had Lee pinned down and Lee had to keep the plastic spoon of death from touching him. He kept Tobi at bay with a banana against the spoon while Deidara and Naruto tried to land a blow on the other with their straws.

Lee was able to knock Tobi back long enough to escape and grab his shield again, but alas, Tobi tore right through it and Lee was out for the count. It was all on Naruto now. My honor. The pleasure to eat with me. It was all on him now. I sat back and watched anxiously.

"Oh my! All this fighting over lil 'ol me! I can hardly stand it!" I pretended to faint all over Sakura, who laughed and tried to shove me off. Bitch you can't move this fat ass of mine!

However, while I was out I heard everyone gasp suddenly. I opened my eyes to see Naruto "stabbed" with Tobi's spoon from behind.

Naruto made a dramatic face of defeat. He made stabby noises as if he really had been hurt and fell to his knees. "Alas! I was not able to win the honor of breaking bread with the fair maiden! But I shan't give up! Do not forget my words! I shall return stronger! I will defeat you, mark my words!" With that, Naruto fell.

Quickly I got up and ran over to his "lifeless" body and "cried" as I held him. "He fought bravely and honorably! But alas, he was no match for your skills, Knight Tobi!" I set down Naruto and got up. "You have won my honor," I put out my hand for him to grab, "I shall eat lunch with you every day until someone else wins that pleasure."

Tobi took my hand and got down onto one knee and kissed it, "Yes, my lady!"

"What about me? I fought, too, ya know." Deidara scoffed from behind me.

I quickly turned around, "Of course, dear Deidara! I am also honor bound to eat with you as well. You fought very bravely." I put out my hand.

Deidara smirked as he took it, and just as he was about to go for my hand, he switched and quickly kissed my cheek. "No sweat." He pulled back, smirking evilly for a moment at me then going back over to the table.

I knew I was beat red for that, but I paid it no mind once Tobi dragged me over to the table – while Kiba dragged Lee and Naruto's "lifeless" bodies back to their table, with a few "Get your lazy fat asses up!" remarks.

I saw down right next to Tobi and immediately stole his pudding, "Chocolate!"

"That was quite a show you all put on," Kisame said from the end of the table. "I haven't seen something that fun in here since the two black pregnant chicks had a fight and one of them aborted the other's kid."

"Fuck, Kisame!" I coughed and hacked through my tremendous laughter. "Don't tell me stuff like that while I'm eating! You'll kill me!"

"What happened to the southern belle act?" Hidan asked.

"Kisame brought up pregnant chick fights and abortion. How can I keep a straight face with that?" I said, eating more pudding. I couldn't help but steal a few glances in Deidara's direction. I'm pretty sure he noticed, too. Fuck, he just messed up my head more than it already was. I realize he was just fucking with me – fucking duh – but come on! A girl will get flustered when a guy that hot so much as hugs you. Max will have a field day when I tell her all about this.

I kept giving him glares whenever we glanced at each other at the same time. All he did was smirk and wink at me. That bastard. I stuck my tongue out at him, which only made him laugh in return.

"Most people wouldn't find that funny," Kisame said.

I turned back to him, "Huh?"

"Abortions and stuff," Kisame gave me a funny look.

"Right, well, I've been around the internet. I feel sorry for the dead kid though. That kinda sucks." I said.

"I guess so," Kisame agreed.

Lunch passed by again, fun as always. No one mentioned anything about this morning's massive text. I'm going to guess they don't think it's worth their time. I certainly don't think it is. All of us know it's a total lie, so why should we care? And I'm sure that Naruto and that group know it was a complete lie as well, although, now that I think about it, that kiss isn't much of a convincer for the rest of the school. Oh well, they can believe what they want. Even if people remember in a week, no one will really care in a few days.

All I was concerned about was that my lunch seating problem just solved itself. Until Naruto wins me back, I'll be eating lunch with the Akatsuki. I don't really mind. I have classes with Naruto and the rest and I hang out with them before school. I think I'm allowed to take one period to spend with the Akatsuki. At least, I thought so. Someone else, not so much.

I was leaving the lunchroom to catch up with Sakura when the random chick from this morning stopped me. I didn't really notice her outer appearance this morning since I was in such a rush, but _damn. _She had this really weird colored red hair and obnoxious glasses. I think she only bothered to brush one side of her hair, too… And I swear the amount of make up on her face was three times as much as the clothing she was wearing. She has to be wearing the bare minimum for the school's dress code. And she cann_ot_ work it. All of this together just screams, "I'M A WHORE!" The only reason I could ever imagine a total stranger being a complete whore based on her appearance alone out of nothing but pure hate is because she tried to make me out to be the school whore a few hours ago.

"What was up with all that stuff in the lunchroom with the Akatsuki?" She asked me like I was some disease that was latching onto them.

"What? The duel? Why, they wanted to win the joy to eat with me for the rest of forever, of course!" I said with a smile. This girl was really annoying me… She keeps getting in my way today.

"Why did Deidara kiss you?" She got right down to business, glaring at me. Oh, did she have her vag – I mean eye on him? I'm not too surprised. There's really only one reason as to why she'd spread rumors about me screwing the Akatsuki.

"Because he's a huge troll? No, troll doesn't work here. Because he just likes to fuck with people?" I said, shrugging. "What's it to you anyways?"

She took a step forward, making me back up a bit, "I'm not gonna have some random new chick encroach on territory that has so obviously been mine since middle school. You should stay away from them if you know what's good for you."

"You're the one who said I was having a threesome with them. You seem a little slow, you know that?" I said.

"Why you little – "

"Karin." A voice came from behind her. I smiled seeing Konan standing there. So _this_ was the chick that we talked about at the sleepover. "Shouldn't you be heading off to class?"

Karin turned around to glare at Konan, "Keep your nose out of this. I don't want to start something up with you again."

Konan said nothing and kept staring Karin down. Eventually Karin got fed up and stomped off, glaring back at us and muttering under her breath.

Once she was out of sight I turned back to Konan, "Ok, I'll bite, who was that?" Sure, I knew she had the hots for Sasuke and we weren't supposed to like her, but what was her deal? Did she also have the hots for the Akatsuki?

"The Akatsuki's own little stalker," Konan sighed. I was right! "She used to go after Sasuke, but ever since high school she's gotten a new taste for the Akatsuki. She likes to think she had dibs on them since middle school, though. She goes after any girls that get too close to them." She laughed lightly, "It took her quite a while to believe I only loved Pein. In fact I'm sure she still doesn't believe me." Konan seemed to drift off.

"What a nut job," I said.

"Indeed, it's no wonder she's going after you now," the bell rang and Konan turned, "We should be getting to class. I'll see you around, Sophie."

"Okie dokie lokie!" I skipped off to class.

Later that day Sakura and Ino cornered me in the girl's bathroom. They were half squealing and half stunned.

"He _kissed_ you! In front of _everyone!_" Ino all but shouted.

"What was it like?" Sakura questioned.

"Did he say anything about it after you went to sit with them?" Ino prodded.

"Did anyone else say anything when you sat with them?" Sakura jumped up and down.

"Do you like him?" Ino squealed.

"Does he like you?" Sakura gasped.

"Are you all going to date?" Ino joined Sakura's gasp.

"Does this mean that any of those rumors this morning were true?" Ino gasped, more stunned than excited.

I put my hands up in front of their faces, "Girls! Chill! No one talked about it at the table, I doubt he likes me, it startled me, no we are not going to date, and you all _know_ those rumors are far from true! Happy?"

"You didn't answer if you like him!" Ino grinned. I'm happy she believed me about all the other stuff.

"No." I shook my head. "No way! Yes, he's hot, but no I do not have a crush on him. I barely know him!"

"Are you sure no one talked about it?" Sakura questioned.

"The only people that have brought it up have been you two that Karin chick," I said causing both girls to gasp.

"Karin saw it? Oh god we have to hide her! Quick Sakura, get the trash bag, I'll find her a new school," Ino started pacing the bathroom, thinking hard.

"I like this school thank you very much," I said leaning against a sink.

"You don't understand, Sophie!" Sakura said. "Karin is going to _kill _you for that! You saw what she did just for seeing you talk to them this morning!"

"You should have seen what she did to Konan freshman year," Ino shuddered.

That reminded me of earlier when Konan was telling me about Karin, "Yeah Konan did say something about Karin thinking she was trying to get with more than just Pein."

"She got all of her little boy toys to corner her and basically beat and molest the poor girl," Sakura said quietly. "No one talks about it, and there wasn't enough evidence to convict Karin or the boys, but everyone knows the Akatsuki got to them."

"It's the only good thing that gang has ever done," Ino huffed. "Only time their violence has been good."

"I still think you all are blowing that violence thing out of proportion, but fuck. She did that to Konan? I need to hug her next time I see her! And you all never mentioned any of that at the sleepover." I said.

"We didn't mention it because we didn't want anyone else knowing how horrible she is. Karin is the only person that people fear as much as the Akatsuki," Sakura said. "She has wicked connections and could ruin just about anyone.

"That's why we're worried," Ino put in. "She could kill you if she really wanted. Konan never so much as hugged most of the guys, except Pein and she still had that happen to her. Trust me, I'm one of the few people she doesn't mind, and only cause I was in her little Sasuke fan club with her in middle school."

"So what should I do?" I asked. I'll admit I was pretty darn scared right now. If something like that happened to Konan, who only ever touches Pein, then I'm sure to be whacked off by the end of the week! I mean I've seen how she could bruise my social life, but that's something that I couldn't care less about. My body is a total different story.

"Just lay low. Don't let any more kissing happen," Ino said, "Well, in public." She added a wink.

"Shhh no one can know about our secret fuck sessions!" I said jokingly. We all giggled away the tension and went back to class.

The rest of the day was pretty calm, until Orochimaru's class of course. I swear this man is out to destroy us all, what with his maze of a school and pounds of homework. I was so thankful when the bell rang. Naruto and I ran out as quick as we could, but he ran ahead of me easily. This felt like my first day all over again. There was just one thing missing, however. What could that be…?

Oh!

Right!

_BAM!_

I ran around a corner and slammed straight into Sasori, who slammed into the rest of the Akatsuki.

"Mother fucker, why can't you all stay out of the middle of the hall, or at least out of my way?" I said from the ground. I crawled around, collecting the miscellaneous binders and books that fell out of my bag. "Don't stare at my ass!"

"Too late," Hidan said.

I glanced back up at him and glared, "Gee, thanks, now could someone please help me?"

"Here."

I looked back and saw Itachi handing me a folder, "Oh, thanks!"

He nodded and continued to help pick up my stuff. When he picked up my Twilight Sparkle binder he froze, however. "You watch My Little Pony?"

"Yeah," I grabbed my binder, "It's a good show!"

"I know," Itachi said simply then got up.

I actually fell on my side and stared up at the stoic man, "What?"

"Itachi, keep it down, would you?" Hidan snapped at him. "We don't need to school knowing that."

I stood up straight and stared at them and whisper-shouted, "You all watch My Little Pony?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Hidan crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.

I stood frozen for a moment, and then ran right up to Hidan, grinning smugly. "I knew I heard you all say something along the lines of "bucking" the first day I went to your table."

Hidan stared down at me, not moving, "You heard that?"

I nodded, still smiling, "So, who is your favorite pony?" I poked his arm. "I bet it's Rainbow Dash. It'd be funny if it was Rarity though."

"No, Rarity is Sasori's favorite," Hidan muttered.

I looked at Sasori and nodded, "I approve." In the whole falling down fiasco I had forgotten I was supposed to be going to the parking lot to go home. "Crap! I need to get going; I'll talk to you all later, ok?" I was just about to run off when I felt a hand grab mine.

"Oh no you don't," Kakuzu said. "We didn't wait here for you for nothing." He grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the circle of men.

I got my bearings and looked around, "Why did you all wait for me?"

"Because Sophie is gonna be walked home today!" Tobi smiled.

"Huh?" I stared at them. "But I have a ride – "

"Taken care of." Pein said. "He knows you're being walked home."

"Wait, wait – "

"You ready, Hidan?" Pein asked, turning to him.

"Yeah, sure," Hidan picked up his bag and grabbed my hand.

"But, but, what's going on? Why is Hidan walking me home?"

Deidara laughed at my confusion, "Nothing you need to worry about."

Hidan made a "tch" sound, "Yeah so can we get going?"

"Um, do I have a say in this?" I asked.

Hidan smirked, "Nope."

I'm sure this must have been quite the site for many students, Hidan dragging me through the school, my hand firmly in his and my lovely Adventure Time hat on. The whole way home was pretty darn fun if I do say so myself! I kept asking him about ponies. What was his favorite one? What was his favorite episode? Celestia, Trollestia, or Molestia? What are his views on Derpy? It was very interesting.

"How about you tell me who your favorite one is and then I'll tell you mine?" Hidan said when I kept asking. I could hear the annoyance and I loved it.

I walked in front of him, stopping him, "Pinky promise?" I held up my pinky to his face.

He stared at me for a moment then rolled his eyes and shook pinkies with me, "I pinky promise."

I smiled and went back to walking next to him, "Ok my favorite is a tie between Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Your turn!"

"Tch," Hidan mumbled under his breath.

"I can't hear you!" I scolded him.

"I like Pinkie Pie, ok?" Hidan said.

I smiled, "Ok!"

"How much longer until we get to your house anyways?" Hidan asked.

"Just a bit more," I said, glancing over at him. "Why are you walking me back home anyways?"

"None of your business, like we told you earlier," Hidan remarked and smirked at my angry face.

"Dude, no way, it's totally my business! You'll be knowing where I live and shit. You could come and kill me in the night!" I told him.

"Too bad, you aren't finding out."

I was about to say something back to him when I realized we were in front of my house. I stopped and pouted, "We're here."

"Great, see you tomorrow," Hidan said. With that, he was off.

I sighed and walked into the house. I swear those boys are the weirdest I've ever met.

**~X~**

_Don't mind all the pony stuff. Why am I making the Akatsuki like ponies? Cause I'm obsessed with ponies right now. Don't worry; it's not a major thing. It'll just be there for some fun humor or whatever._

_Ohhhh Karin is in the picture! What could this mean for Sophie? Hehehe._

_Now, TruthBeTold, you suck as a troll. (Well, maybe not, because I'm replying to you…) But I'm not mad. HA! Sorry, I gave my last fuck to someone else. I'm all out of any to give you._

_Anonymous reviews are turned off so yeah. You wanna keep doing that stupid crap? Get an account, be an adult, and stop hiding behind the anonymous façade that the internet gives us._

_That goes for anyone who has the stupidity to send a negative review like that to anyone anonymously. That just shows you're scared and know you're wrong._

_I'm all for constructive criticism though! I KNOW I need to improve. I'm no Stephen King here. But, hey, at least I have grammar and I'm not all, "AND THN SOFY KSSED HIEN AND DAYDARA AND THEHY HAHD SECKS A LOOOOOOT AND FLL IN LUV!"_

_That hurt to type. Brb, an heroing._

_Next chapter will be up before Halloween, I promise!_


	5. Rumors

_Yes, yes, yes. I just posted something about this not every maybe getting updated like ever. But ya know what? The reviews I got inspired me. So, I sat my ass down, wrote, and BAM. I finished this. Be warned. I wrote the first half of this months ago and the second half, well, today/a week or two ago. So yeah._

_KEEP IDEAS COMING. PLEASE. It helps! Or just bug me to write this. I NEED TO BE NAGGED! Now, please enjoy. And review. Lots of reviews make me happy._

_Rumors_

I hurried into my house after Hidan left and threw my bag on the couch before plopping down on it myself.

"Who was that?"

I jumped up and looked at the chair to the right of the couch. Dave was sitting in it, chuckling because he startled me.

"A friend," I said.

"As if," Alex called from the kitchen. "He's just one of her new boyfriends."

Dave raised an eyebrow, "Boyfriends? Plural?" Dave might not be blood relation, but he's just as protective as any biological father would be.

"He's not my boyfriend! He's a boy, and he's a friend, but no way is he a boyfriend of mine!" I shook my head. "Nope, nope, nope, not a boyfriend at all. I'm covered in boyfriend repellent!"

"Oh so then you're dating the blond one?" Alex came into the living room with a sandwich.

"How do you know about them?" I asked him.

"I have the same lunch as you, dummy." Alex grinned.

Fuck. I never even noticed him. I was always too focused on my own table to really look around. Hey, can you blame me?

"I'm not hearing a 'no'."

"No I have no suitors at the moment!" I said.

"Then why did one of them kiss you at lunch?" Alex asked.

"Someone kissed you?" Dave asked and raised an eyebrow.

"He only kissed me on the cheek to tease me! It was nothing more than that." I defended myself. That's true, I doubt Deidara kissed me for any other reason.

"Whatever you say," Alex rolled his eyes.

"I do say," I nodded and headed up to my room. I don't think I could take much more of that tonight. Out of habit I sat down at my computer and turned it on. Facebook was the first thing to come up. Dammit. Is there a rehab place for people too addicted to Facebook?

Something was out of place as I looked at my newsfeed. I had a lot more notifications and messages than I normally did. Way more.

I clicked and saw that most notifications were people writing on my wall. I checked and my jaw hit the floor. From noon, or so, and on people have been writing things like "SLUT" and "GANG BANGER" on my wall. My messages were much worse off.

"Oh _FUCK_ no!" I said. This was not about to happen on my account. I've heard of people getting seriously depressed and even hurting or killing themselves over messages people will send over the Internet.

Fuck that shit. I'm going to actually use my brain to solve this one.

Within ten minutes I had blocked everyone that wrote on my wall and messaged me, made my account private so only friends could view my account or write on there, and I made sure to delete all the stuff on my wall before any family members or friends back home saw it.

Most teenage girls would be a sobbing mess right now. Not me. Fuck. That. Shit. I was pissed. Who would have even started a rumor like that?

It didn't take me long to come up with a suspect.

I sat back in my chair and thought for a moment. What do I do now? Is it even safe for me at school now? Is this why the Akatsuki wanted someone to walk me home?

I think I needed to pay Max a call. I picked up my phone, jumped onto my bed, dialed, and explained everything that happened today.

"THAT LITTLE…I HAVE NO CURSE WORDS BAD ENOUGH FOR HER!" Max screamed over the phone. "AND THOSE LITTLE…I HAVE NO WORDS BAD ENOUGH FOR THE PEOPLE THAT WROTE ON YOUR WALL! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"

"That's what I thought." Hearing Max's anger somehow calmed me down. "I'm still getting messages from people that weren't able to do shit during school. You'd think they'd be tasteful about this."

"Who the fuck messages someone about it? What are they even saying?!" Max asked.

"Things like 'Only desperate people go after the Akatsuki' and 'You must be quite the horny slut to be going after the entire Akatsuki so outright.'" I said in a funny voice and sighed as I clicked away the notifications for more messages. I wasn't even reading the messages anymore. They got repetitive after a while. That's what happens in public schools, everyone uses the same insults over and over. I couldn't help the laugh that escaped.

"Fuck, if I was there…"

"We'd kick serious ass."

"Duh. I hate drama so much," Max groaned.

"Same, but at least my new friends don't believe any of it. Actually most of them can't stand the girl that made up the rumor. It's funny, the entire school hates Karin, but the moment she makes a rumor, they all believe it. Why is that?" I asked.

"They're afraid if they don't believe it, she'll smack a bitch?" Max offered.

"Maybe… I'm just happy Sakura and the rest believe me over her. If they didn't, I'd be crushed." I shuddered.

_BING!_

I looked at my computer and saw that someone had messaged me. I jumped from my bed to my chair and saw it was Tobi. "Oh my glob, Max!"

"What?"

"Tobi just messaged me saying he was worried and asking if I was ok!" I squeed.

"OH MY GLOB!" Max screamed.

I quickly told him I was fine, just very angry. "He's so sweet it's not even funny!"

"I can tell, but shit, my mom needs me. We'll continue this later, ok?"

"Of course!"

After we hung up, I kept typing to Tobi. He was really worried that I was all sad and stuff. He said he saw the stuff on my wall before I took it down. I told him it was fine.

"How about Sophie spends this weekend with Tobi to feel all better?" Tobi asked.

"That would be awesome!" I said back. A weekend with Tobi definitely means fun. I only get him for 45 minutes a day. Just imagine an entire day with him!

"Hey, Tobi, is this drama stuff the reason you all had someone walk me home today?" I typed.

"Tobi and the others were afraid someone would be mean to you on your way home!"

"Awww, you all are so nice!"

We talked for another hour or two, discussing what we wanted to do this weekend, favorite shows, things like that. It was actually really fun. Tobi's a really nice and fun guy.

Once he left, I started on the only homework I ever seem to get, Mr. Orochi-fucking-maru's fun little worksheets. He's one of those teachers that don't seem to like kids, or teaching, but won't ever quit their job, no matter how bad it is.

The night was relatively calm and normal after that. Facebook and then video games until what I thought was only 10 but ended up being 1 in the morning. When I woke up the next morning I was definitely not ready to trot off to school.

I walked out the door with my eyes half closed.

I wasn't surprised when my mailbox started talking to me, "You look like hell this morning."

"Shut up, mailbox, I only had four hours of sleep," I grumbled back to it.

My mailbox started laughing at me. This mailbox has some balls if it's going to start laughing at me!

"You must have if you think your mailbox is not only alive, but would talk to you."

I blinked my eyes and rubbed them a few times and looked over to see that my mailbox was actually Kisame.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Walking you to school obviously," He grinned back at me.

"Because of the nutjobs at school?"

He nodded.

"I thought so…" I sighed. "Well, since you're here, how about you lend me a hand?"

Kisame raised an eyebrow, "Like what?"

I smiled.

At school everyone couldn't help staring at me on Kisame's back, getting a piggy-back ride. I hope Kisame is always the one to come pick me up from my house. It's an extra twenty minutes of sleep.

He took me all the way to my first period class then said his goodbye and was off. I walked into class, not looking at anyone but Naruto, sat in my desk, and snuggled up to my backpack and tried to go to sleep.

I would have succeeded, too, if Naruto hadn't kept poking my cheek.

"What?" I groaned, looking up at him.

He had this serious look on his face, "I know you aren't having any ten ways or anything with the Akatsuki," he whispered, "but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous."

I raised my head to look at him better, "The most dangerous things they've yet to do is have that sword fight with you and Lee."

"Just be careful ok? Bad things usually surround that group."

"Don't worry," I smiled reassuringly, "If there's any sign of bad shit, I'll be sure to turn tail and run."

Naruto hesitated, but returned my smile, "Alright."

The rest of the day was pretty much all of my real friends questioning me about the Akatsuki. No one really had the chance yesterday after all. I can't blame them for asking, I guess. These guys seem to have a very bad reputation here.

The other half of the day was everyone else being epic douches. Most of the girls looked at me like I was the biggest sluttiest, skankiest whore ever. A Slankore if you will. Psh. I'm sure all of you bitches have done things that aren't even legal here.

Some of the girls did attempt to get me alone to ask me about the whole "gangbanging." That was probably the most unbelievable part of the day. Some girls were actually so slutty that they openly asked me about it. I denied ever even kissing any of them, of course, but they weren't going to believe that.

Now, the most annoying part of the day was the guys that approached me. They weren't like the slutty girls. They right out came up to me in the hallways in groups of three or more and asked if I was available this weekend. The awkward part about this was that I couldn't actually say what my plans for the weekend were. I also wasn't always with some friends when this happened and had to try to get away by myself.

One particular group of boys was much more persistent than need be. Apparently if I could sink low enough to do the Akatsuki I was enough of a whore to sleep with anyone. As fucking if! From what I've seen of this school, the Akatsuki are much better than half the guys here.

I spat back that they were stupid enough to believe anything that their friend heard from their friend who heard it from their Aunt Matilda.

I don't think that was what they wanted to hear. I learned this when I was very roughly pushed against the lockers behind me. Now I'm not usually one to play the sexism card, but I'd gladly sit on the floor and whine that the big bad males hurt a little delicate and defenseless girl like me.

"Hey!" Someone yelled from down the hallway.

We looked over, expecting to see a teacher, but instead saw Lee standing there at the end of the hallway.

The boys immediately relaxed and started laughing.

"Go home, faggot, we're busy here." One of the guys called down to Lee.

I could just barely see him past the huge wall of rapist in front of me, but I did see the expression on his face. He didn't look happy.

Lee started walking quickly towards us. "Let her go."

"What's a little faggot like you gonna do about it?" Another guy asked.

Lee walked until he was within reaching distance of the guys, "I'll have to make you let her go."

All the guys started laughing hysterically.

"You?! You're gonna 'make us'?"

"This guy has to be kidding!"

"What a total fag – ugh!" The guy doubled over when Lee punched him straight in the gut.

"Please let Sophia go now." Lee said, staring at the other two guys.

The guy holding me down threw me aside and started charging Lee along with his friend. I have no idea how, but Lee managed to jump over the two charging guys, get behind them, grab them by their shirts, and knock their heads together. In less than a few moves, Lee had effectively eliminated the three guys.

"Well hot damn." I said, getting up. "I'm sure glad you came along, but you didn't have to do that. You might get suspended or something now."

Lee turned around, grinning hugely as usual, "It's alright, Sophia. I'd rather get in trouble than walk away from a friend who is in trouble!"

"Please tell me that means you don't believe any of these rumors then." I said playing with a string on my backpack.

"Of course I don't, but even if I did, I still wouldn't let you get hurt!" He gave me a thumbs up to go with his grin, "You're my friend and no matter what I'll always be there to help!"

His grin was very infectious. I found myself wearing one just as big and jumped to hug Lee. "Thanks, you're really awesome. We should get to lunch, though."

"Ok!" Lee hugged back then we walked to the lunchroom. While walking there we passed right by a redhead, hidden behind the lockers I was held captive against.

I hugged Lee goodbye then ran over to my usual lunch table.

"Hey, where've you been?" Deidara asked around a mouth of sandwich.

I sat down and pulled out my lunch. "Oh you know, just having back to back orgies." I said with a hint of anger.

"Sounds like fun." Deidara said, rolling his eyes.

"Well according to the whole school that's probably what I was doing," I opened my pudding cup and started angrily eating it.

"Don't be sad, Sophie!" Tobi turned to face me, "They're all meanie-heads anyways."

"Only some of the girls are," I said as I finished my pudding.

"What about the rest?" Kisame asked.

"They wanna know what it was like," I made a disgusted face.

"Seriously?" Hidan piped up from down the table.

"Yeah, there are some real big sluts in this school, but I wouldn't go anywhere near them. I could just smell the STDs on them," I said.

"Have any of the mean girls been mean to Sophie today?" Tobi asked.

"Of course not, you dipshit," Deidara answered before I could. "Girls never talk trash to each other's faces."

"And when they do, it only ever leads to a fist fight," Kisame shook his head.

Hidan grinned, "And what's so bad about a chick fight?"

Kisame mused for a moment. "I guess you're right. The only really bad one at this school was when that one chick slept with another chick's baby daddy or something. Didn't that chick have a miscarriage or something because of the fight?"

"Oh yeah," Deidara chimed in, "I saw that one. It was bad. Apparently the pregnant chick was the 'other woman' so the not pregnant one kept punching her in the stomach."

"Even I have to admit that's fucked up," Hidan said with a weird face.

"Didn't the girl to go prison for that?" Itachi asked. I jumped a tad when he spoke up. He's always so quiet, I forget he's there.

"Yeah," Kisame nodded, "Don't think she'll be getting out anytime soon."

"Bitch deserves that," Deidara said. The rest just nodded silently in agreement. It got quiet after that. None of us really knew how to continue from that topic. I looked around then took a sip of my apple juice.

"Lee saved me from three rapists before lunch today," I said nonchalantly.

"WHAT?" Hidan yelled.

**~X~**

Never in my life have I loved the feeling of walking home from school on a Friday so much. This week has been one of the worst ever. After the Akatsuki learned about the rape attempt, or whatever it was, they didn't leave my side once at school, before school, and after school. On Wednesday night I got this feeling someone was also watching me from outside…

Since I always had an Akatsuki around me, I couldn't hang out with my other friends as easily. Whenever I tried to walk with someone like Naruto or Sakura they'd get really quiet and awkward. In Naruto's case he glared at the Akatsuki member of the hour until we had to part ways.

On top of that, the harassment didn't stop. I don't know what it is about people, the but moment you're the center of negative attention everyone has to bug you at any chance they can get. This came in many forms. People would make obscene gestures or say obscene things to me in the halls, even if I had a big blue Kisame or scary looking and pissed Hidan right next to me.

The Akatsuki couldn't always be right next to me, sadly. I did have to pee from time to time. I know The Guide says to pee before you go to school, but I'm sorry Ned Bigby! My bladder doesn't exactly abide by your schedule! When I'm in the girls bathroom it's pretty much the best time any girl can get to me. Most of them gave me looks of total horror. Some even went as far as to remark that the stall I used was now horribly infected and no one should ever to near it again in fear of lingering STDs.

I asked one of the girls, "So does that mean I get one whole stall to use for the rest of the year that no one else will?"

"Of course, no one wants to catch whatever disgusting disease you've gotten, whore." The girl spat back.

I couldn't help but smile a huge smile at her. "Really?" I said excitedly, "My own stall? In a public restroom?! THANK YOU GLOB!" I shook the girl's hand vigorously, "Finally I don't have to worry about poop in the toilet bowl or used toiletries sticking out of the garbage can!" I happily skipped out of the bathroom yelling another thank you to the girl. Sure, I had used that to get under her skin, but if she was going to go through with this, I was not going to let that get me down. My OWN stall?! Hell yeah.

But, the bathroom exchanges weren't all like that. There were some bitches in there who did get to me. It didn't help that an Akatsuki member always followed me around, including to the bathroom. That gave the girls enough material for a while.

I won't lie, I came out of that bathroom beyond pissed, ready to break something a lot. I also came out of there on the brink of tears once, but assured Deidara that some girl had just dropped a huge deuce that had a stinging smell from the Gods. I don't know if he bought it, but he went along with it.

That was just earlier today. Hey, if you were constantly harassed at school you'd have a weak moment or two as well.

Weak moments aside, I was heading home and it was Friday. With the weekend coming, people could easily forget or lose interest in my rumor. At least that's what I was going to tell myself all weekend.

I sighed loudly, "I need some Saints Row…"

Kisame raised an eyebrow at me, "You play Saints Row?"

Kisame and Hidan now alternate between taking me home since they're the most intimidating members. I didn't mind. By now, I was happy to have the extra protection. Who knows what would happen if I didn't have them.

I nodded, "Yeah, got the new one. I really need to hit some people in the heads with The Penetrator."

Kisame smirked, "You got that?"

"Yeah, it's fun." I said.

"So, you have a steam?" He asked.

"Yup, have for about three years now," I grinned happily.

"What's your ID?"

"TurtlePowah354." I spelled out for him.

Kisame grinned mischievously, "Cool." He looked behind me and stopped, "Well, I'll talk to you later."

I turned around and saw that I was home. I sighed happily, "Sanctuary!" I was off to the door waving behind me to Kisame.

I sped up to my room and collapsed on my bed. I turned over and grabbed Martin out of his tank and put him on my chest. He walked around my torso for a minute then settled between my boobs for a nap. His favorite sleeping spot. Either my turtle is smart about sleeping areas or is a total pervert. Either way my boobs are definitely Martin's property.

I giggled when I thought about having to explain to my first boyfriend that he couldn't touch my boobs because they belonged to my turtle. I played the scene in my head and laughed even more.

I should have stopped at that thought because my mind wandered to much more depressing things.

At this point in my life the only way I could get any kind of attention from a boy in a romantic way had to be from a rumor about my having a…what was it…ten way? Eleven? Whatever. It didn't really matter. I petted Martin as I stared at my ceiling.

Back in South Carolina I only had one guy friend and that was Andrew. I guess it's no wonder I didn't get a boyfriend there. Andrew was awesome, but I really couldn't see myself dating him. At all.

Here, it's totally different. I have a "gang" of boys who want to do whatever they can to keep me safe, and I've only known them for a few weeks. Mental note: ask them why that is this weekend.

I also have Naruto, Lee, Kiba, and Gaara for friends. Hmm, with so many male friends, maybe this year will be different.

Picking up Martin I put him back in his tank and stood up, "Right, no depression today or this weekend. I will not let my small break have sadness!" I got on my computer and opened the usual Facebook and such. It didn't satisfy me today, though. I opened up Steam to start playing a very violent and bloody game, or anything I could kill people in, when I noticed I had a few notifications. Weird. I never get any on here. I clicked and saw that I had a couple friend requests.

I accepted them and noticed they were all online. Before I could message one of them to ask who they were, one messaged me first.

Hidan?

I guess while I was having my thinking sessions Kisame told some of the Akatsuki about my Steam name.

"Kisame told us you had this so we figured, hey, new member for our gaming group." He typed.

"Yes, please. Games. Now. Yes." I typed back.

Before I knew it, midnight had come, I was Skyping with Hidan, Deidara, Kisame, and Tobi, and playing Team Fortress 2.

"I fucking hate engies!" Hidan yelled trying to sap a sentry.

"Die, fuckers!" Deidara yelled, even though the other players couldn't hear him.

"NO DON'T KILL TOBI!" Crying sounds followed Tobi dying, again.

"Fuck, where the hell is that sniper?" Kisame said angrily.

"He's up on the building behind you, Kisame!" I yelled at him.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," Deidara yelled louder as a Pyro set him on fire.

It was pure chaos while playing this. Nothing but yelling and screaming and cursing and Skype telling me too much sound was coming from my speakers.

But it was the most fun I've had this week.

While I was in the middle of killing a Heavy, Skype told me someone else was trying to call me.

Max.

"Hey, guys, one sec, my friend is calling me." I tried to say over their yelling. Whether they heard me or not I put them on hold and answered Max. "Sup hoe?"

"Hey, saw you were playing TF2. Care for another player?" She asked.

"Dude, I'm playing with some of that Akatsuki group, we're talking on here," I told her.

A loud scream shot out of my speakers followed by, "OH MY GOD PLEASE ADD ME!"

"Ok, I doubt they'll notice or care."

A few clicks later and Max was in our group call. After a few minutes she sent me a message saying how she wished Skype still allowed group video calls. I agreed. I believe she deserved to see the great Akatsuki I've told her so much about.

Another few minutes later and I heard Max grumble, "I need my motivational song, I'm sucking…"

"Let's get down to business. To defeat the Huns…" Started quietly through the speakers. The Akatsuki got quiet.

"Is that…?" Deidara asked.

"It is…" Kisame said.

Another moment of silence, then, "Be a man! You must be swift as the coursing river…!"

For the next half hour Max looped the song and we all sang along to it and proceeded to kick major ass. It was glorious.

Eventually Max said her mom was yelling at her to get off, so she and her pumped up music had to go.

We were all quiet for a few minutes, nothing but TF2 sounds. Without Max's music I was starting to get a little sleepy, but I did not want to end this awesome night of gamming. Then, a thought occurred to me. I grinned and went to YouTube.

I turned up my Internet browser's volume and hit play.

"Shot through the heart, and you're to blame. Darling, you give love a bad name!"

Kisame laughed very loudly, "Perfect!"

The rest of the night we each took turns choosing songs to get psyched with and continued capturing points and killing each other in TF2. At least until I finally got tired.

"Stop it, eyelids! You must stay up!" I yelled at them.

Eventually Hidan convinced me to go to bed so I could be up early and have energy tomorrow for what they had planned. I was too tired to be suspicious of this, so I told them goodnight and went straight to bed.

While I knew tomorrow would be fun, I was not prepared for what would occur throughout the course of that day.

**~X~**

_I always say how much I want reviews. But I really do. They're so much fun. I like hearing my readers' feedback. And it makes me feel loved._

_LOVE ME, DAMMIT, LOVE ME._


	6. Crushing

_**WARNING: VERY MATURE CONTENT AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER. I WILL WARN YOU BEFORE IT STARTS. IF YOU DO NOT LIKE IT, DO NOT READ IT. THANK YOU.**_

_Don't say I didn't warn you. DON'T SAY IT. Or I'll be sad.  
><em>

_Crushing_

Despite my best efforts I couldn't mooch a ride from Alex over to wherever-the-hell I was going. Grumbling the whole way there, I begrudgingly drove my way over. I still had no idea what we were doing today. All Deidara had told me was to be sure to wear shoes I can easily run in.

After twenty minutes of driving I came upon my "destination." My jaw hit the floor. I had pulled up to a very, _very_ fancy gate that came with it's own gate person. Behind the gate was a brick roadway that went up to a very elegant fountain and formed a circle around it. The road branched off to the right towards some garages. The fountain was freakin' awesome. It had to be shooting water fifteen feet in the air and was surrounded by some of the prettiest flowers I've ever seen.

As for the house behind it... Whoa. It was pure white with a huge door that probably led into a beautiful parlor area. From here I couldn't seen into any of the windows, but I could see how many there were. A lot.

"Miss Stephenson?" The gate person came up to the car and asked.

I waved, "Yeah, that's me. Am I in the right place?"

He nodded, "Yes, Master Uchiha shall be waiting for you."

"Tobi or Itachi?"

"Both."

"Oh."

The man nodded again at me, then forward towards the gate. On cue, it opened to let me pass through. I gave the man a wave and drove in.

I drove along the road and followed it around the fountain in the middle to pull up to the front door. I got out and looked around. A man came over and said he would park it for me. I thanked him and headed up the steps to knock on the door. I was very disappointed when there was no huge knocker I could use. Sadly, I poked the doorbell. A nice chime rung out through the inside of the house. While very pretty, it was not at all as satisfying as a huge ass knocker.

A man opened the door and let me in. He turned away from me and said to follow him to "Master Uchiha's room."

He led me up some really pretty white marble stairs. Everything seemed to be some kind of white or cream. Everything was extremely clean, too. With the whole white/sterile thing I'd feel like I was in a hospital, but this place had something about it that made it feel like an actual home.

A few hallways and some more stairs later the butler opened a door and walked in.

"Miss Stephenson has arrived, sir." He said.

"Thank you," I heard Itachi say.

The butler nodded, turned, and was off to do more things.

I walked into the room and was still amazed by the amazingness of this house. While Itachi's room wasn't stark white like everything else, it was still just as fancy.

A nice big king sized bed had it's head against the wall and right across from it was a very nice fireplace. On either side of Itachi's bed were bookshelves lined with book after book. The wall opposite of the door was pretty much one big window with some chairs in front of it.

The whole color scheme was a nice black/red/white thing that was very Itachi.

"Nice place you got here..." I said, trying to sound like I've been to places like this a million times.

"Thank you," Itachi said.

I looked around and saw Itachi and Kisame sitting in the chairs in front of the window and Deidara and Sasori sitting on the bed with Tobi on the floor at the foot of the bed. I furrowed my brow.

"There's something missing here..." I said.

Almost on cue I felt two fingers jabbed into my sides. I was sent flying half way across the room, screaming quite loudly, and landing unceremoniously on Tobi. I heard Hidan laughing from the doorway.

I quickly got up off Tobi, "Oh crap are you okay?!" I asked him.

Tobi nodded and smiled, "Yes! Sophie is very light so she didn't hurt Tobi at all!"

At 130lbs I wouldn't say I was _light_... But then again all of these guys seemed like they could lift well over 200lbs.

"Are you ok though?" Deidara asked from on top of the bed. I could tell he was trying his best not to start laughing right along with Hidan, and now Kisame.

"Yeah, not the first time a guy's done that," I said picking myself up. "Why do guys have to poke girls in the side all the time?"

"Because of that fucking reaction!" Hidan bellowed.

Well at least I knew where he was now. I shook my head and looked at Itachi. "So what are we doing today?"

Itachi got up and walked to the door. "Follow me."

"Okay..." I walked after him with everyone else following behind. I couldn't help myself from looking at all the decor in this place as we made our way to the backyard. If Itachi and Tobi were so rich, why the hell were they going to a public school?

The lot of us walked out into the backyard and past the very elegant swimming pool where I saw Sasuke lounging about in a very comfy looking lawn chair. Oh yeah, he must live here, too.

Itachi led us past the fence at the back of the yard and down a trail that went into a forest. A few minutes of walking later we came upon a pile of what looked like gear for a military. There were even guns.

Wait. What?

I kept walking behind Itachi but raised my eyebrow at the weapons. Just what the hell could they have planned?

I couldn't help some of the ideas that crept up. _Maybe they were as dangerous as everyone was saying? Maybe we're going to go rob a bank? What if they plan on just hunting? What if they plan on hunting dangerous game? What if they plan on hunting the most dangerous game..._

A shiver ran up my spine. No, no. They wouldn't up and start hunting _me._ That would be ludicrous.

"Finally, we can start," Hidan ran over to the gear and picked up a vest and gun.

When he picked up the vest I noticed a few splotches of red here and there on it. I am not going to lie, for a moment I seriously contemplated running clear out of there.

"You okay, Sophie?" Sasori asked, giving me an almost worried look. My face must have had my thoughts written all over it.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! I'm fine! Ha-ha of course!" I forced a huge smile.

"You don't have a problem with paintball, do you?" He asked.

Paintball.

The red isn't blood. It's paint. Red paint.

"Of course not!" I said and picked up a gun. "I'll kick all your butts!"

Sasori tossed me a pile of gear. "We'll see about that. Go get changed into that."

I looked from Sasori to the gear and back at him, "You serious?"

"Don't worry, Sophie," Kisame patted my head, "Just walk that way about thirty feet. We won't be able to see you." He pointed to my right. I looked where he was pointing and completely froze. "Oh come on, Hidan!" Kisame yelled. "At least wait until she's gone before you start changing!"

Hidan had already taken it upon himself to strip out of his shirt and pants. I looked just to the side and cleared my throat. "Thanks Kisame..." I mumbled. Now it's not like I've never seen a man like that before. I mean. Duh. Internet. But I will admit I've never seen a man like that just ten feet away from me.

Hidan smirked, "What? It doesn't seem like anyone here really minds." He put his hands on his hips and looked straight at me. Oh that dirty little...

"Hmph!" I stuck up my nose and walked right past him to go get changed. Granted, I did have to force myself not to look at a certain nether region as I did so. I blame the Internet. It can do things to you!

Just as I passed through some fronds I heard a loud smack and "OW, WHAT THE FUCK?!"

What would Max think if I told her about this, I wonder.

**~X~**

I leaned my back against the tree bark behind me while I positioned my feet on the branch I was on to make sure I wouldn't fall down to the ground as someone came by. I had been paired up with Hidan and we decided a good strategy would be to hide up in the trees and wait until someone came along. All in all, this wouldn't be too bad of a plan. The only problem was that because of the tree we chose Hidan and I were basically sitting in each others laps, and neither of us could move a millimeter or we'd risk being spotted. On top of all of that the vision of a nearly naked Hidan wouldn't leave my mind. I was pretty happy I was facing away from him.

Just as my mind started pondering what the rest of him may look like, I heard a twig snap. All of my attention was on the ground now. My eyes looked everywhere and eventually saw what made the noise.

Kisame.

No wonder I didn't see him at first. Before we started, we figured Kisame should wear the ghillie suit since he's so huge. Because of the suit I couldn't see him at first. But there he was now. Completely oblivious to the fact he was in my sights. I'm not stupid, though. Kisame was paired with Itachi, one of the sneakiest people ever. Just because I couldn't see him doesn't mean he wasn't creeping around somewhere else.

Just then Hidan elbowed me in the arm ever so slightly. He had Itachi in his sights. I elbowed back signaling that I had Kisame. The two of us counted to three, then took our shots.

We didn't waste any time after. The two of us jumped down from the trees and ran past them and clear into the forest. We were sprinting over roots and around bushes until we finally found a spot that looked safe enough to rest.

"Did you get him?" Hidan panted.

I just nodded. I couldn't make any words through my panting. This is the most exercise I've had in months. Damn I'm out of shape.

Hidan nodded back, "Good, that just leaves Sasori's team." Sasori had been teamed up with Deidara and Tobi.

I took in a big breath, "But...didn't Tobi...get shot...earlier?"

"Yeah, but I'm sure Sasori and Deidara are looking for us now. We need to keep moving." Hidan said standing up straight.

"Hold...on...dude..." I fell back onto my back and just laid there against the cool soil. "You...may be physically fit...but some of us...are nothing but...noodles." Thankfully I can blame my red face on all the running right now if I need to.

Hidan rolled his eyes but sat down next to me anyways. "You really need to get out and exercise some more."

"But all exercise is sooo boring!" I wiped the sweat off my face. "And all it ever does is hurt and make me sweat."

"Exercise can be fun," Hidan said.

"I dare you to name one!" I said looking up at him. I regretted that as soon as I said it. Before I knew it the sun that was in my eyes was being blocked by Hidan's head and I could feel the weight of his body on mine and his hands pinning mine down at the sides of my head.

He was smirking one of the most mischievous smirks I've ever seen. "I'll do you one better, I'll _show _you one."

I didn't – couldn't – move. In the back of my mind I knew he was joking, but the sudden – _very –_ suggestive position was enough to make me forget how to form words. I spent a good minute laying there trying to come up with a good comeback. Nothing.

Hidan's smirk turned into a grin. He got off of me, laughing, and helped me up. "I'm just screwin' with you. Come on, we have some artists to blast."

I shook my head and walked along with him, "You Akatsuki are going to drive me nuts."

On the way back I kept seeing this random blob of red just above bushes here and there. I shook my head to clear it. "Must be getting too much sun..." I mumbled to myself.

**~X~**

In the end Hidan was the last man standing for paintball. Deidara took me out as I was climbing another tree. Little bastard. Hidan took that chance to take him and Sasori out since they didn't seem to realize that Hidan was there as well.

Afterward we all went back to the huge house to rest and clean up.

"Did Sophie have fun today?" Tobi asked while we were all relaxing in Itachi's room.

"Hell to the yes." I said. "Thanks, guys."

Tobi ran over and squeezed me in a death hug, "You're very, very welcome Sophie!" I couldn't help it. I hugged him back.

_Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!_

I flailed about, "Tobi, my phone's ringing!" He let go of me and I answered it. "Hello?"

"Sophie, where the hell are you?" Mom said.

I felt my legs almost give out. Fuck! I looked at the time. DOUBLE FUCK! "Sorry mom! I didn't realize what time it was!"

"Hurry and get home. Dinner is almost ready." She said and hung up.

I stared at my phone in horror for a few seconds before fanatically making sure I had everything. "Oh crap, crap, crap! Guys, I gotta go. Mom needs me home. Sorry to leave so early." I ran towards the door.

"Let us walk you out," Itachi said.

I stopped and turned around. "Ok, but hurry!"

Quickly we all went out into the front courtyard where Itachi had the man from earlier bring my car around. I turned back to Itachi and instinctively gave him a hug, "Thanks for having me over. This was really fun. You all can text me or message me or whatever later, bye!"

"None of us have your number, dummy." Hidan said.

"Oh, right, force of habit, I guess." I took out one of the tiny Sharpies I keep in my jacket just in case I ever want to draw on something during school. I grabbed Kisame's hand and wrote my number down on it. "Okay, text me, bye!" I ran off to the car, got in, and went home as quickly as I could. Mom would be pissed either way, but at least the quicker I got there, the less she would be overall.

After dinner I went up to my room and laid down on my bed. I was exhausted. I was going to sleep like a baby tonight. Or maybe now. Now would be okay too.

Just as I was about to drift off to sleepy-la-la-land my phone vibrated and startled me to full alertness. I groaned aloud. "Who the hell would dare to disturb my sleep?!" I took my phone out and saw that it was a number I didn't recognize.

"Hey, it's Kisame. We'll be spamming your phone for a bit so you can get our numbers. Have fun:)"

Oh, okay. I added Kisame's number to my phone and waited for the others. One by one I added each Akatsuki member to my contacts. Maybe sleep isn't on the agenda for right now.

After a while I was only texting Deidara, Tobi, and surprisingly, Hidan. Deidara and I were talking about My Little Pony if you can believe it. We were debating which princess was better: Luna, Celestia, or Cadence. You'd think he'd go with Luna, but nope. He was standing by Cadence while I argued Celestia. This has been going on for hours.

Tobi and I were talking about different types of cakes and other sweet pastry things. I was telling him how because of him I was now eating the rest of the ice cream we had. Somehow, Hidan found out and started teasing me about eating so much.

"How the hell do you know what I'm shoving into my face?!" I texted him.

"None of us felt like going home so we're all staying with Itachi and Tobi tonight." He texted back.

"*Whiiiineeee* And you all didn't include meee?! Hmph! I see how it is!" I texted.

"How about you and I have our own sleepover next weekend ;)" Hidan sent.

"Please for the love of everything good in this world never send that kind of winky face again. I WILL disown you." I cannot stand that emoticon. It's...disturbing.

";D? That work better miss emoticon connoisseur?"

"Yes!"

"So, how about it? You didn't say no."

"No to what?"

"A sleepover of our own, dummy."

"Is this how you romance all the girls? It's simply amazing that you're single!"

"As far as you know. I got bitches all over the place. One for every day of the week."

"How come I've never seen any of these bitches?"

"I don't let my bitches see each other."

I couldn't help the laugh I let out, "Ohhhh snap!" I said out loud.

"Clever." I texted.

"I know." I could almost see the smirk he was making on the other side of this conversation. We kept texting through the night until I was only texting him. It wasn't always him being a pervert. We actually had conversations about things like favorite movies, food, places we'd wanna visit one day. Things like that. I told him I'd never been to Disney before.

"Never?"

"Never. And I've always really wanted to go!" I texted him.

"Noted."

I feel like at one point these guys are going to drag me to Disney. Normally this would be a pretty silly idea, I thought to myself. But what with Itachi's fortune... I wouldn't doubt it.

At one point I decided I'd see what time it was. I mean it could only be like midnight or something, right?

Nope.

4 am.

Well, shit.

I told Hidan that I just noticed how late it was and that I really need to get to sleep. We said goodnight and off to sleep I went.

**~X~**

The next morning when I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was the clock. It red in big green numbers: 12:00. I shot up out of bed, rubbed my eyes, and looked again. Still noon. _Crap, I knew I shouldn't have stayed up so late._

I jumped out of bed and stretched. First thing's first, I need food. I ran downstairs and straight to the kitchen. Obviously I wouldn't be having any pancakes or anything, so I rifled around and found some Poptarts. Good enough for me.

As I walked back to my room I started thinking. I don't remember playing any kind of games last night... So why had I been up so late? I got to my room and sat in my chair still thinking. Just as I took a bite of my Poptart my phone went off. Phone. Texting.

I'd been texting Hidan for ten hours last night. Oh yeah. I'd also seen him in nothing but his boxers yesterday, just hours before he pinned me to the ground and suggested something very...adult. Oh. Right. My face heated up as I kept nibbling my Poptart.

I shook my head. "No, stop it, idiot!" I said to myself. It was nothing more than two friends talking about this and that. As for Hidan being practically naked. Well, that was just Hidan being Hidan. I'm pretty sure if nudity was optional, he'd torch his whole wardrobe.

Half way through my Poptart I remembered why I recalled yesterday. My phone went off. I reached my hand out for it but paused.

_What if it's him...?_

I slapped myself. If it is I'll say hi! Nothing wrong with that! Nothing at all!

It was a text from Max.

I let out a sigh of relief, but as I opened the text I felt a twinge of...disappointment? Nah. Just a burp.

I told her I'd be hanging out with the Akatsuki yesterday so naturally she'd need to know what happened. Of course, I had to tell her. After I explained what happened yesterday she called me.

"YOU. SAW. HIM. NAKED?!" She screamed into the phone.

"NO, NO, NOT NAKED! JUST...ALMOST!" I screamed back. "We were all getting changed for paintball and... Yeah..."

"YOU WERE CHANGING WITH THEM?!"

"NO! I was gonna go somewhere else! I swear!"

"Do you like him?" Max said with a sudden calm. Eerie calm.

"Huh? What? Of course not! No, no way!" I shook my head and waved my hand around. "No way do I like him, I barely know him!"

"Then why are you so hung up over this, hm?" She asked.

"I am not!"

"You wouldn't be reacting like this if you weren't! You'd be squeeing along with me if you didn't like like him!"

"Oh, fuck you!" I groaned.

Max laughed, "I'm so right!"

"Well I probably wouldn't be so hung up over it if other things hadn't happened, too." I said.

"Oh?" Max's voiced was full of interest. "Do tell."

"Well..." I told her about the whole debate over exercise and the whole thing with Hidan pinning me down. "I mean, I'm sure he was just kidding around, right? Like, that's the kind of thing he'd do to any girl, right?"

"If that's what helps you sleep at night," Max said.

"You...you don't think he likes me too do you?" I asked hesitantly.

"How would I know? You should ask him."

"ARE YOU ON FUCKING METH?! I couldn't do that! He doesn't! I don't! There's no liking going on here!" I started to pace around my room.

"Whatever you say." Max said sarcastically.

I got us off of the topic of _that_ and onto something else. I remembered I had an assignment in Orochimaru's class that I had to do. Thus began the long and well over due rant about the worst teacher ever.

"Seriously Max this guy is the worst! You always hear about teachers who hate kids, but this guy really does not like anyone. All he does is drone on and on in the same monotone voice and if you so much as rest your head on your hand he slaps a ruler down on your desk! He does it so well, too. He doesn't hit you, but an inch closer and you'd probably lose your head. Not to mention if you ever raise your hand he either ignores you completely or will send you to the office for having an attitude. Even if you just need to pee! I mean... Fuck! And the worksheets he gives us... We don't learn about the stuff on them until the next day. When we have to turn them in. Everyone is failing." I took a deep breath. "I hate him. And he seems to really not like me."

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno, it's like ever since the second week of school he cannot stand me. If I don't sit up straight and take notes every single second of the class he'll find some way to send me to the office or slap my desk with a ruler. Friday he thought I'd need more work so he up and assigned me four more worksheets."

"And you haven't started one, have you?" Max asked.

"...No..."

"You might wanna get on that."

"Fine... I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay, see ya!"

"Bye."

I hung up and looked at the clock. It was 1:30. Alright, let's do this. I brought my backpack over to my desk, plugged my headphones into my computer, turned up the volume, brought out the worksheets, and got to work. I wouldn't let Orochimaru best me at this. He forgets that I can use a little thing called the Internet to solve most of this stuff.

After I finished my first worksheet I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and turned around to see mom behind me. I took off my headphones. "Yeah?"

"Dave and I are going out tonight. We'll be back around 10, alright? There's leftovers in the fridge." Mom said.

I nodded, "Okay, thanks. I'll see you when you get back." She smiled, nodded, and left. I put my headphones on and started on the second worksheet. After what seemed like forever I finally got to the fifth, and last, worksheet that I had to do.

_**WARNING NOW**_

I had just answered the last question on the first side of the sheet when it happened. All of a sudden a hand was over my mouth and I had been yanked back from my desk, pulling the headphones out of the socket. Escape The Fate blasted through my room as my chair fell backwards and I was pulled up off of it and pushed forward into what felt like a person.

"What the fuck?!" I screamed, terrified. What the hell is going on? I looked up to see who it was, hoping to see an Akatsuki or even Naruto or someone who was just playing a mean prank. I didn't recognize this man, however. Even in the dark I knew that I did not know who this was. There was a strange man in my room who was roughly spinning me around and pulling my hands behind me. When I turned around I saw there were two other men also in my room. Both were in a bit better light and I realized they couldn't be any older than me. And the one on the left was one of the guys from the incident with Lee earlier last week.

My legs almost gave out under me. What is going on?

"Who are you? Why are you here? Get the fuck out of my house!" I screamed a them. I pulled my hands against the guy behind me and gathered all the strength I could in my legs and kicked out at the guys in front of me.

"Shut up." The guy to the right said. "It'll be over soon." His facial expression took away any comfort that his words would have provided. Am I going to die? Are they here to kill me? What is going on?

"ALEX!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Dammit why did I have to be listening to my music so loudly? There's no way he'd be able to hear me over the music.

"Hold her still, will you?" The guy on the left said, coming closer. I kicked out at him, but he easily pushed my leg to the side and pulled out something that shined momentarily. "Keep quiet and I won't need to use this on you, got it?"

He'd pulled out a knife. I kept as still as I could, but I didn't relax one bit. Every single muscle I had was tensed and my eyes were darting around frantically. "What are you going to do?"

He smirked one of the most terrifying smirks I have ever seen. "Nothing you're not used to." With that he took the knife and literally cut straight down my shirt and ripped it off. I thought that kind of shit only happened in movies. I was completely terrified now and thankful that I was too tired last night to ever take off my bra.

"No, please - "

"I said, shut up." He poked my neck with the knife. He kept it there and I felt his hands grab my breast through the bra.

I couldn't help letting out a quick sob. This cannot be happening. This cannot be happening to me!

The other guy came over and pulled my PJ pants, and a bit more, down my legs.

"She really is a whore, she's totally bald here!" The guy – guy 2 – said. Sue me for thinking shaving there made it more manageable.

I instinctively pulled my legs together but guy 2 pushed them apart again. This cannot be happening to me.

Guy 1 pushed my bra up over my breasts and started to painfully squeeze and pinch them.

"Stop, that hurts!" I said through a sob. The boys just laughed at me.

They laughed even more when I started to really start struggling after guy 2 started touching me down there. I would have screamed when he pushed two of his fingers in if I had not been afraid for my life and if the music hadn't been so loud.

Wait. The music. It's music. The song has to end. Then it'll be quiet. Alex is still home. I can still get out of this before it gets to the point of no return. The song... It's almost over.

I tried to steady my breathing. Screaming for Alex wasn't going to work if my voice didn't work. I couldn't wait for another song to end. That would be too long.

I took slow, deep breaths, trying to focus on anything but the painful squeezing of my breasts and the painful way guy 2 kept jamming his fingers into me.

_Here it comes..._ I thought to myself as calmly as I could. I thought I had a really good chance here. Guy 1 had lowered the knife, being so interested in...other things... I could get Alex in here before they had a chance to do anything. Yes. I can do this.

The song ended.

I took in a huge breath. "ALEX!" I screamed so loud it vibrated everything from my chest to my knees and hurt even my ears.

I've never been so happy to have his room right next to mine. In no time at all my door was swung open and Alex was running in.

_**WARNING OVER**_

"Sophie!" He yelled and ran for the closest guy.

"Shit, someone was still home!" The guy behind me said.

"Get out of here, fuckers!" Guy 1 said.

Guy 2 was scrambling to get away from Alex. The three of them ran to the window and jumped out. Alex ran to my window and kept yelling after them, "I'M CALLING THE COPS."

Alex ran back to me and found my phone. He called 911 while he wrapped me up in my blanket that was on my bed.

He told them our address and what happened. They said they'd be over in five minutes. Alex hung up and pulled me up on the bed and into his lap. He rubbed the side of my arm until the police showed up.

When he went down to get them I figured it'd be a good time to put on some pants... I put on some Pjs I found in the laundry basket just in time for the officers to come upstairs.

Alex called mom and Dave while I talked to the officers. They wanted to know typical stuff. What the guys looked like. Did I know them. That stuff.

And to think all I had wanted to do this evening was finish up my homework.

**~X~**

_GOD. THAT. WAS. AWKWARD. TO. WRITE. -Shudders and flails-_

_GAAAAHHHH. AHHHH... AH X.X_

_However, the rest of this was fun. Also, I feel the title for this is beyond clever. Cause. Ya know. Two meanings. Ha._

_Review and such. Hearts and things._


	7. Reassurance

_So, I got stuck on the ending of this chapter. For three months. I was also busy doing things like school. Sorry guys, I had a lot of things to do lately. If you want to give up on this story, go ahead. Especially since this is now one year since I posted this bitch…_

_It's really hard to update stories when I don't have a friend to help me think of things to happen/motivate me._

_Anyways, enjoy this chapter if you're still interested. I'm sorry for not updating well. I'm working on other things, too. So, yeah. (One of those things MIGHT be a KK rewrite…)_

_Reassurance_

Even though I asked Alex if I could sleep with him tonight and the three guys were caught I still didn't get much sleep that night. It didn't help that I didn't get to even try until about three in the morning. After the police came they asked me a million questions and after only two hours asked me to go down to the station to identify the men they caught.

These guys were some of the stupidest I've ever seen. Not only did they not make sure I was _alone_ but when they ran they didn't even think to go further than five miles from the "incident." Just guess where they thought they should hide.

McDonald's.

They thought they'd be fine hiding in a McDonald's.

Whatever, they're loss. They were caught now and hey it was only two in the morning! Woot.

After I identified them the police said I could go home for the night. By the time we got home I was thoroughly exhausted. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and let this whole day end so I could start getting over it.

It's never that easy, though. Nothing is ever that easy. I tossed and turned next to Alex for a good two hours before I started a very uncomfortable sleep. Every hour or so I'd wake up and be between sleep and wakefulness. Before I knew it Alex's alarm clock was going off. I laid there while he went about getting ready and told him to tell whoever was outside today that I wouldn't be going to school today.

"What do you want me to tell them?" Alex asked.

I pulled the covers tighter around me. "Just…tell them I'm sick…"

Alex nodded and came over to give me a tight hug. "I'll come straight home, okay? Promise me you'll be ok while we're gone today?"

I nodded and smiled as convincingly as I could. Sure I wouldn't go and kill myself or anything, but I was officially terrified to stay home alone now. I know I shouldn't be, and statistically I'm as safe as can be today, but it was still a terrifying concept now. Once everyone had left I ran around the house locking every single door and window I saw. After that I gathered a bunch of supplies to lock myself up in my room with. I had gotten together snacks, sodas, and just about anything I saw around the house I'd think I'd need throughout the day. I even grabbed the big ass flashlight that we had in the garage to use just in case I had to pee sometime during the day. I didn't want to walk around outside my room without any kind of protection.

Once I had all of my things I arranged the food and sodas on my bed, put everything else on the ground, and wrapped three blankets around me. Naturally right as I got comfortable my phone went off. I contemplated moving to see who texted me and eventually decided it could be mom checking in with me already. I wouldn't want to worry her by not replying quickly enough. She'd be home in five minutes thinking I was imploding.

I picked up my phone and looked at who had texted me. It was Hidan. I opened that thread of messages and realized that he hadn't just texted me this morning. He'd texted me yesterday, too. I guess I never noticed what with my loud music playing and everything else that happened. I knew I should reply and tell him I was sorry for not replying at all yesterday and reply to his "Get well soon" text. The thing was I didn't want to talk to him, or anyone.

I put my phone back on my nightstand and plugged it in since it was almost dead. Sighing, I turned and curled up into a ball in bed.

_Sorry, Hidan… There's just no way I could talk to you or any of the Akatsuki right now._

Or, maybe there was an Akatsuki member I could talk to about this…

I sat back up and picked up my phone. I needed to get Konan's number, but who could I ask? I didn't really want anyone blabbing that I had texted one of them for a tiny bit of information. Somehow in my mind that meant everyone would start spamming my phone, something I did not want right now.

Itachi. He doesn't talk, like, ever. Perfect.

I texted him and asked what Konan's number was.

_Wait, what if he asks why I need it?_

"Unlikely," I muttered to myself. Itachi doesn't seem like the kind of guy to give out much information, much less ask too much.

Five minutes later, I found myself to be correct. Itachi texted me Konan's number, I said thank you, and proceeded to text her.

Because of school she couldn't really text me back as quickly as I'd like, but once lunchtime came it became much easier to keep the conversation going. I knew I'd have to be quick about telling her what happened or else I'd have to wait until the end of school. Sure, it's not that long, but at this point I really wanted to talk to her about this. I'd been waiting all day and beating around the bush almost constantly. I couldn't waste much more time.

After all, she had the same exact thing happen to her, even if it was Karin who caused hers.

The thought that Karin made these guys go after me flickered through my brain for one moment before I pushed it away.

No. That could not be it. Even so, it was hard for me to really tell her what had happened to me yesterday. I spent a good ten minutes writing and rewriting a long, vague message.

I don't know if Konan is a psychic or what, but somehow she deciphered my ridiculous message and understood exactly what I was trying to tell her. She even assured me that she wouldn't breathe a word to any of the Akatsuki or my other friends unless I said she could.

The rest of the day she seemed to reply much faster and with much more interest than earlier. She kept asking me things like who the guys were – I'd learned their names last night when I identified them – and other things that I didn't really understand the purpose of. She was asking things like, "Have you gotten any closer to any of the Akatsuki lately?"

I told her that, yeah, I'd gotten a little closer to Hidan, but what did that have to do with anything? Admittedly it took me a few texts to really admit I'd gotten close to Hidan, but I figured Konan would have a better reason than gossip to ask about it.

Eventually I got the text that I was really hoping Konan wouldn't send.

"I think Karin had something to do with it," She texted me.

I had to read the text ten times before I was sure of what it said. Konan thinks Karin had something to do with it. Honestly, if anyone else had said it, I would have written it off as them being paranoid. The only reason I'd believe Konan even for a second is because the exact same thing happened to her. I asked Konan if she was sure and she said she was fairly certain, but she'd have some "friends" of hers do some snooping.

After thanking her I looked at the time and saw that school would be letting out soon. Alex would be home in about half an hour. He'd want to know about this.

I put my phone on my nightstand again and curled up in bed until I heard him get home. Not wanting to get up, I waited until he came to my room – but stupid me forgot the door was locked.

The doorknob jiggled. "Uh, Sophie? You ok in there?" Alex asked.

I groaned and got up, "Yeah I'm coming." I opened the door and went back to my bed.

"How were you today?" He asked and sat next to me on my bed.

I shrugged, "Eh…"

"It looks like you have quite the stockpile in here," He said as he lifted the bag of Oreos. I didn't say anything and stared down at the floor. "Hey, you sure you're ok?"

I pulled my knees up to my chest and looked up at Alex, "I was talking to Konan today, the girl in the Akatsuki. I remembered this happened to her, too… Well, she said something today… When this happened to her, a girl at the school made the boys do it to Konan. So… Konan thinks that since I'm closer to the Akatsuki…"

"That's ridiculous," Alex said softy. "No one is that deranged."

"The girl did it to Konan," I told him. "The girl made the guys go after Konan because she was close to an Akatsuki member."

Alex was silent for a minute, staring off into space. "Well," He started, "It's not like we can prove it even if she did."

"Konan is going to have some friends snoop around," I said.

Alex sighed, "Just make sure this Konan chick knows what she's doing." He got up and walked to the door. "I'll be checking in later, got it?" He gave a smile and a wave before walking through the door.

I laid back in bed. Konan was probably busy now, Alex was doing his homework now, and I was too scared to talk to anyone else right now. For some reason the paranoid part of my mind thought that if I talked to anyone right now the events of yesterday would spill out and whoever I was talking to would never want to have anything to do with me again. Of course I knew that was ludicrous, but that's the power of paranoia.

On the other hand, the logical part of my mind wanted – needed – to tell someone and talk this through. It was hard to talk to Alex about it since he was my brother. I needed a friend to talk to about it, but anytime I thought to talk to someone about it, the paranoia would shut that thought down.

So, instead of doing anything, I just laid there and let my mind wander. That's kind of a dangerous thing to do when you don't want to think about certain things, because once you start thinking about those things, it's hard to make yourself stop again.

**~X~**

That week had to be one of the hardest ones of my life. All day and all night all I could think about was Sunday night. I thought about how much of a despicable bitch Karin was and how bad things could have gotten if Alex really hadn't been home. The whole week I felt like dirt. Like someone had come in and poured mad cow disease on me and I was officially untouchable and unlikeable by anyone now. That one part of my brain kept screaming at me that I was tainted now. At no time before Sunday had I ever done anything but hug a guy. I wanted to wait for a guy I really loved and other sappy stuff.

The paranoid part of my mind would tell me that since those three guys did that stuff, no guy would want me for me. They'd all only want me because I was "easy." I mean, who wants a prude these days, right? All the guys ever want is an easy slut.

I'm not ashamed to admit I did do my fair share of sobbing like a baby most of the week, but I am ashamed to admit I'd occasionally think of some ways to take away the emotional pain. I'd heard a lot of victims of rape and molestation would turn to self-harm to help ease the trauma. The only things that stopped me were the thoughts that I'd accidentally kill myself, the idea of my parents or Alex finding the wound or scar eventually and send me off to a psychiatrist, and the thought that I didn't even feel worthy enough to do that. I didn't even feel like I deserved to do something that extreme. Compared to some of the sexual assault stories out there, mine is pretty minor.

However I'm sure if Alex hadn't been home, and if the guys had gone further than they did…

No, I wouldn't think about that. Not again. I shook my head and turned back to the computer screen. About Wednesday I got the energy back to use the computer. I didn't talk to anyone, but I did look at funny pictures of cats. It helped, actually. Thankfully when it comes to the Internet the amount of funny cat pictures never seems to end. Just when you think you've seen every single picture, BAM. You find 2,000 more.

I was currently laughing at a picture of a cat that looked like an owl when I heard Alex come home. I got up and unlocked my door then went back to my funny cats.

"Hey," Alex said when he opened the door, "You wanna do anything tomorrow?"

"You mean after school? Sure," I told him.

Alex shook his head, "No, tomorrow is Saturday. Would you want to do anything tomorrow?"

"It's Friday already?!" I turned around to stare at him. "Holy shit. Uh, yeah, can we have a movie marathon?"

"Sure," Alex nodded and smiled. "I'll get you up tomorrow and we can spend all day in our Pjs and watch whatever you want to."

I smiled back at Alex. It was a small one, but it was a smile. I think that's progress for me, "Ok, awesome."

I was excited for tomorrow, honestly. I'd wanted to have a Lord of the Rings marathon for a few weeks and this was the perfect time to do so. I went back to my cats, but not two pictures in, I heard my phone go off. I groaned and got up to check it.

It was another text from Hidan. Another thing I'm ashamed to admit, after talking to Konan on Monday, I hadn't talked to anyone but Alex and my parents. Every morning I had Alex tell whoever was out there that I wasn't coming to school. I just couldn't see anyone. It didn't feel right.

The text was asking if I was doing ok. I really did contemplate replying to him, but I wasn't ready to yet. I mean what if he found out what happened? It would probably ruin any chance I _might_ have with him. He'd never want me if he knew what happened.

I put the phone down and went back to my cute little kitties.

**~X~**

"Sophie, come on Sophie, it's time to wake up."

I groaned and rolled over. "Go away, Sully… I don't want to wake up yet…"

"Sully? Am I really that fat? I'm not even blue."

"You must have dyed your fur then…"

Sully started laughing and then started shaking me, "Get up you crazy person."

"Gah!" I opened my eyes to see Alex shaking me awake. "You meanie, I was having an awesome dream with Sully in it!"

"Yeah, I know," Alex pulled my covers off. "Come on. It's time for the marathon."

I blinked at him for a few seconds. "Marathon…? Oh! LOTR! Yes!" I jumped up out of bed and ran downstairs.

"Mom and Dave agreed to give us the living room today for the marathon," Alex said. "Come on, we need to get snacks before we can start."

"Okay!" I ran into the kitchen and looked around and in every cupboard and pantry shelf. "What to eat… Ah!" I grabbed the popcorn and tossed it to Alex. "Pop that." I nearly tore the kitchen apart looking for suitable snacks for the day. Somehow I was actually able to find a good amount of candy bars, chips, and enough popcorn to last all day. As for drinks, it appeared the Yoo-Hoo fairy paid us a visit last night. I filled a cooler with ice and put half the Yoo-Hoos into it. I also put a few Capri Suns in there as well. "Perfect."

It took a while, but eventually Alex and I had a nice layout of our snacks of the day. The cooler was set nicely between the two of us on the floor with the popcorn in a huge bowl between us on the couch. The candy bars and chips were set throughout the coffee table in front of us and each of us had an end table next to us to set our drinks and favorite snack food on. Once settled we popped in the first Lord of the Rings and we were off!

Alex and I started to argue who was better, Aragorn or Legolas, when the meeting at Rivendell was being held. I argued that Aragorn could kick serious ass even though he was just a human. I mean, come on, he can keep up with a bunch of fictional creatures. He's a huge badass.

Right as I was totally going to win the argument someone knocked on the door. I gestured for Alex to answer it to which he rolled his eyes. Sure, I was closer, but I was also covered in snacks. I had commandeered the bowl of popcorn and set it in my lap. I also had a bag of chips on either side of me and random candy bars every here and there. On top of it I was balancing a Yoo-Hoo can on each of my knees since I was sitting criss-cross-applesauce. I was a snack _God._

"You're ridiculous," Alex said as he walked to the door.

"I am the Snack Goddess. And you are my door answering slave. Deal with it," I popped a chip into my mouth. I then choked on said chip when Alex opened the door to reveal Hidan standing there.

"Well, Miss Goddess, you seem to have a guest," Alex said while trying to stifle a laugh.

Hidan raised an eyebrow at me, "Quite the set up you have there."

"Well, you know, uh…" I stammered while trying to get the snacks off of me without spilling anything. The feeling of the two of them staring at me while I tried to find a place to put everything was very awkward. I got up once I had gotten everything off of me and turned to Hidan and Alex. "Well… What's up? How are you?"

"That's kinda what I came to ask you," Hidan said. "None of us have heard from you this week."

"If you need to talk to your friend, Sophie, the movie can wait," Alex said and motioned Hidan in so he could close the door. "I'll be up in my room if you need me," and to his room he went before I could say otherwise. That sneaky bastard, I know what he's up to. Alex is obviously trying to make me talk to one of my friend about what happened.

We'll see about that.

It felt weird to see Hidan after what felt like forever. I awkwardly cracked my knuckles and forced a smile, "Shall we, uh, go to my room then?"

"Sure?" Hidan said.

I led him to my room where I offered him a seat on my bed while I sat in my computer chair. "So! How have you been?" I asked him.

"Sophie, where have you been this week?" Hidan asked. "Alex said you were sick, but you don't seem all that ill to me."

"Well… I uh… I got all better!" I nodded. "Yup! I just didn't go to school yesterday because I still felt kinda bad! I'm all fine today, though."

"Come on, Sophie," Hidan said. "I know something's up. Itachi told us you asked him for Konan's number and she isn't saying anything."

"That's very kind of her…" I said, looking at the floor.

"Is this about what happened Saturday?" Hidan asked.

My head snapped up to stare at Hidan, "Saturday? What? No, of course not, I had a lot of fun Saturday. What makes you think I had a problem with it?"

"It's something I've learned from girls. If they don't like something that you did, they tend not to say anything about it and ignore you as best that they can so they can avoid having to deal with whatever it is that happened." Hidan said. "It's something I've seen happen to a lot of us."

I shook my head, "No, no, I'm not stupid like that. If I didn't like something you did, I wouldn't just ignore you, I'd tell you."

"So that means you did like Saturday," Hidan smirked ever so slightly.

"It was much better than Sunday…" I mumbled to myself.

"What?" Hidan asked, leaning closer.

"Nothing! It's just… Don't worry, okay? This week I wasn't trying to avoid you or any of the Akatsuki."

"Then why did you miss a whole week of school?" Hidan asked, looking almost concerned.

"I was sick, of course," That didn't even sound convincing to me.

Hidan gave me a look that clearly said he knew I was lying through my teeth, "Come on, Sophie. If you're going to lie, at least do it properly."

I looked back down to the floor. I didn't want to lie to Hidan, but I couldn't tell him what happened. What would he think of me after? Would he think I was disgusting? Would he think I was too much of an emotional handful now? I couldn't risk it…

_If he thinks that, then he isn't good enough for you._

Whoa, what? What was that? Did my brain just dish out some logic for once? And what does my mind mean by "good enough for me"? Whatever. It was right, though. If he did think that kind of stuff, then would I really care as much that he'd want nothing to do with me?

I don't associate with people like that, anyways. Right?

"Sophie?"

I bit my lip. Could I really tell him?

"You aren't going to let me off the hook until I tell you, right?" I asked. Hidan crossed his arms and nodded. "Alright…" I took a deep breath and folded my hands into my lap. "On Sunday evening my parents went out for the night. Most of the day and evening I was doing the stupid worksheets Orochimaru assigned us. I'd gotten through the first side of the worksheet when I was pulled back from my desk." I couldn't keep looking at him as I continued my story. My eyes stared down at my feet. "Three guys had gotten into my room. I recognized one from when some guys were bugging me earlier last week."

I had to stop talking because my voice was starting to crack uncontrollably. The floor became blurry and I felt warm liquid on my cheeks. I was crying? I hadn't cried all week, why was I crying now?

I felt Hidan's hands on my arms pulling me up and sitting me down next to him on my bed. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his lap. I grabbed onto his shirt and let the tears flow. Why was I crying now? This was stupid. Not once this week did I shed a tear and now here I am sobbing like an idiot.

"You don't need to say anymore," Hidan said. It sounded like he was trying to be comforting, but instead he just sounded angry, very angry.

Slowly, I made myself calm down enough to speak. "Are you mad at me?"

Hidan grabbed my arms and pulled me away from him so I was able to look right at him, "Do not ever think I'd be mad at you for something like this. This isn't your fault, got it?" He said very sternly.

Surprisingly, I felt better. I sniffled and wiped at my eyes. "Okay."

"Is that why you didn't come to school this week?" Hidan asked, "You thought we'd all be mad at you about this?" His hands fell from my upper arms down to my hands.

"Sort of… I didn't really want to see anyone this week. After what I talked to Konan about I was also kind of scared to go back to school…" I mumbled.

"What did she say?"

"She said that she thinks Karin had something to do with this, so I didn't want to go back to school because I was scared Karin would send someone to finish what the other guys couldn't…"

Hidan's eyebrows furrowed together, "What do you mean?"

I smiled a bit, "Alex was home when the guys broke in. When they pulled me my headphones also came out. When a song was over I was able to scream for Alex's help."

Hidan's shoulders relaxed and slumped as he let out a big sigh, "So they didn't actually do anything?"

"They did… But nothing permanent. At least not physically permanent…"

Before I knew what was happening Hidan pulled me into a tight hug, "Good." I didn't question it, I needed the hug, whether I knew it or not. I hugged him back and let out my own sigh.

"I'm still scared to go back to school," I mumbled into his shoulder.

"Don't be," Hidan pulled back and smirked at me, "If you don't mind letting the others know then I can 100% promise you that you will be safe no matter what."

"Alright… I know they'll find out sooner or later anyways."

"Don't worry," Hidan made a straight face, "We won't let her near you ever again."


End file.
